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 THIS LIBRARY CONTAINS WORKS BY 
 
 JACOB ABBOTT, NORMAN MACLEOD, 
 
 GEORGE MACDONALD, ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS, 
 
 H. H. JESSUP, D.D., LYMAN ABBOTT, 
 THE AUTHOR OK THE ScHONBERG-CoTTA FAMILY, 
 
 EDWARD GARRETT, WASHINGTON GLADDEN, 
 
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 CATALOGUE 
 Of Economical S. S. Library 
 
 B." 
 
 Alice and Her Friends ; or, the Crosses 
 
 of Childhood. 
 Agnes Warringtqn's Mistake, by Lucy 
 
 Kllen Guernsey. 
 
 Bible Lore, by Rev. 1. Comper Gray. 
 Brought Home, by Hesba Stretton. 
 Crooked Places ; a Story of Straggles 
 
 and Triumphs, by Edward Garrett. 
 Crust and the Cake, by Edward Garrett. 
 Cumberstone Contest, by the Author of 
 
 Battles Worth Fighting. 
 Cousin Bessie; a story of Youthful Ear- 
 nestness, by Mrs. K. L. Balfour. 
 Character Sketches, by Norman Mac- 
 
 leod. 
 
 Crew of the Dolphin, by Hesba Stretton. 
 Children of the East, by H. H. Jessup, 
 
 D.D , Missionary in Syria. 
 ClaiA's Little Charge, by the author of 
 
 Lolely Lilly 
 Christian Way (The) ; Whither it Leads, 
 
 and How to Go On, by Rev. Washing 
 
 ton Gladden. 
 Draytons and the Davenants ; a story of 
 
 the Civil Wars in England, by the 
 
 author of the Schonberg-Cotta Family. 
 Deaf Shoemaker, and other stories, by 
 
 Philip Barrett. 
 
 Double Story (A), by George Macdonald. 
 David Lloyd's Last Will, by Hesba 
 
 Stretton. 
 Early Dawn ; or, Sketches of Christian 
 
 Life in England in the Olden Times, 
 
 by the author of the Schonberg Cotta 
 Family. 
 Familiar Talks to Boys, by Rev. John 
 
 Hall, D.D. 
 Faire Gospeller (The) ; Mistress Anne 
 
 Askew, by the author oi Mary 
 
 Powell. 
 Finland Family; or, Fancies Taken for 
 
 Facts, by Susan Peyton Cornwall. 
 Henry Willard ; or, The Value of Right 
 
 Principles, by C. M. Trowbndge. 
 Household of Sir Thb's. More, by the 
 
 author of Mary Powell. 
 Happy Land ; or, Willie, the Orphan, 
 
 by the author of Lonely Lilly. 
 Half Hours in the Great Deep. With 
 
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 Fred. Lawrence ; or, the World Col- 
 lege, by Margaret E. Teller. 
 Frank Forrest : or, The Life of an 
 
 Orphan Boy, by David M. Stone. 
 Glenarvon ; or, Holidays at the Cottage. 
 Gypsy Breynton, by Elizabeth Stuart 
 
 Phelps. 
 
 Gypsy's Cousin Joy, by Elizabeth Stuart 
 Phelps. 
 
 Gypsy's Sowing and Reaping, by Eliza- 
 beth Stuart Phelps. 
 
 Gypsy's Year at the Golden Crescent, 
 by Eluabeth Stuart Phelps. 
 
 Geoffrey, the Lollard, by Frances East- 
 wood. 
 
 Hubert, by Jacob Abbott. 
 
 Juno and Georgie, by Jacob Abbott. 
 
 Juno on a Journey, by Jacob Abbott. 
 
 Kemptons (The), by H. K. Potwin. 
 
 King's Servants (The), by Hesba Stret- 
 ton. 
 
 Lillingstones of Lillingstone, by Emma 
 lane Worboise. 
 
 Little Boots, by Jennie Harrison. 
 
 Lucy's Life Story, by the author of 
 Lonely Lilly. 
 
 Lonely Lilly, by the author of Twice 
 Found, etc. 
 
 Little Nan ; or. a Living Remembrance, 
 by the author of Lonely Lilly. 
 
 Layman's S'.ory (A) : or. The Experi- 
 ence cf John Laicus and his Wife in a 
 . Country Parish, by Lyman Abbott. 
 
 Minnie Carleton, by Mary Belle ISart- 
 lett. 
 
 Mary Osborne, by Jacob Abbott. 
 
 Margaret, by C. C. Fraser Tytler, author 
 of Jasmine Leigh. 
 
 Nelly's Dark Days, by Hesba Stretton. 
 
 On Both Sides of the Sea : A Story of 
 the Commonwealth and the Restora- 
 tion, by the auihor of the Schonberg- 
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 Old Back Room (The), by Jennie 
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 Polly and Winnie : A story of the Good 
 Samaritan, by the author of Lonely 
 Lilly, &c. 
 
 Russell Family (The), by Anna Hastings. 
 
 Syrian Home Life, by Rev. H. H. Jes- 
 sup, D. D. 
 
 Starling ( The), by Norman Macleod. 
 
 Tom Burton ; or, The Better Way. 
 
 Toil and Trust : or, The Life Story of 
 Patty, by Mrs. E. L. Balfour. 
 
 Twice Found, by the author of Lonely 
 Lilly. 
 
 Victory of the Vanquished : A. Story of 
 the First Century, by the author of the 
 Schonberg-Cotta Fami'y, 
 
 Wonderful Life. A Life of Christ, by 
 Hesba Stretton. 
 
 Wandering May, by the author of Lonely 
 Lilly, &c. 
 
 Uniform with Library " B." 
 
 Economical S. S. Library, A. 5O vols. $24. SO 
 Economical S. S. Library, C. 4O vols. $18.SO. 
 
 These Libraries contain different books throughout, and are so 
 
 numbered that they may be used together as one. 
 DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, New York.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO 
 
 3 1822022455711 
 
 Social Sciences & Humanities Library 
 
 University of California, San Diego 
 Please Note: This item is subject to recall. 
 
 Date Due
 
 LIBRARY I 
 
 UNIVfTT' ",'' Y OF 
 
 CALi: r O>\MA I 
 
 SAN DIEGO J
 
 WAR WITH THE SAINTS. 
 
 COUNT RAYMOND OF TOULOCSE, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 C R U S A DJE 
 AGAINST THE ALBIGENSES, 
 
 UNDER 
 
 POPE INNOCENT III. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH. 
 
 SUustvattto SEWtfon. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, 
 751 BROADWAY.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 TUB present volume is the last work nrhich pro- 
 ceeded from the pen of CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH. It 
 occupied much of her time and thoughts during the 
 last eighteen months of her life ; and the story and 
 her earthly existence came to a close almost at the 
 same moment. 
 
 The work presents a singular instance, also, of a 
 literary labor persevered in, and carried to a com- 
 pletion, under circumstances of the most painful 
 character. Shortly after she had commenced thia 
 narrative, an ailment which ultimately proved to be 
 cancer, showed itself, which terminated her life on 
 the 12th of July, 1846. Her mental vigor, how- 
 ever, was scarcely diminished by it, even up to the 
 very close of her days. In her Personal Recollec- 
 tions, the methods she had recourse to, during hei 
 illness, are thus described : 
 
 " She continued to conduct her Magazine ; and to 
 effect the mechanical operation of writing, she in-
 
 t PREFACE. 
 
 vented during one of her sleepless nights, a machine 
 which was immediately constructed by a clever car- 
 penter. It consisted of two rollers on a frame ; on the 
 lower one many yards of paper were rolled, and a*, 
 fast as she filled a page, writing with the frame rest- 
 ing on her knees, a turn of a small winch wound off 
 the manuscript to the upper roller, and brought up 
 a ciean surface of paper. In this manner she would 
 write papers for the press, and letters to friends, 
 measuring three, or four, or six yards in length. 
 Dictation was very difficult to her ; no pen hvt her 
 own could follow her thoughts with sufficient rapid- 
 ity, nor did she resort to this mode of writing, un- 
 til absolutely compelled to it, during the two last 
 months of her life." 
 
 It was by the help of this machinery, that the 
 present volume was written. But these labors, per- 
 formed at such a sacrifice of physical comfort, to 
 which her enthusiastic soul, devoted to the cause 
 of Truth, impelled her, are at an end. For the 
 closing hours of one whose remarkable character 
 invested even ordinary scenes with such absorbing 
 interest, the reader is referred to her recently pub- 
 lished memoir, which closes with this paragraph : 
 
 "She also directed that no stone should be laid 
 over her; but that her resting-place should be
 
 rKEFACE. 
 
 marked by a simple headstone, dictating the epi 
 taph, which, with the addition of the date, has bee 
 .bus inscribed : 
 
 HERE 
 LIE THE MORTAL REMAINS 
 
 OP 
 
 CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH, 
 
 THE 
 
 BELOVED WIFE 
 
 or 
 
 LEWIS HYPOLYTU3 JOSEPH TONNA. 
 
 \ 
 
 WHO 
 
 91 ED ON THE 12th OF JOLT, 
 
 MDCCCXLV. 
 
 MXMUNG L'XTO
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN THE TWELFTH CENTURT 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ANTICHRIST ...... 45 
 
 CHAPTER ffi. 
 
 THE CRUSADERS ,9. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CAVERN .... ... 151 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE LADY OK LAVAUR 179 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE WEARING OUT .... .319 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CONCLUSION .... ... 259 
 
 4JTENDIX ."... , 302
 
 WAR WITH THE SAiNTS, 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY.. 
 
 " HE doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the 
 children of men." So spake the inspired Prophet, 
 in the midst of one of the most bitter lamentations 
 ever uttered by mortal lip, or penned by mortal hand. 
 A visitation of dire wrath had overwhelmed his na- 
 tion ; the severity of which, in the eye of a pious 
 Israelite, it is scarcely possible for us even faintly to 
 conceive ; Jerusalem was overthrown, her palaces 
 destroyed ; the holy and beautiful house where her 
 children had worshipped, was burnt with fire, and 
 with it was lost a treasure such as no people on 
 earth had ever possessed tablets, on which the 
 finger of Omnipotence had traced in visible charac- 
 ters the great commandments of His eternal law : a 
 portion miraculously preserved, of what the Psalmist 
 calls " angels' food," the sustenance with which, for 
 forty years, Israel had been daily fed from heaven, 
 and which was laid up, by Divine command, as a 
 1
 
 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 testimony for succeeding generations ; the rod also, 
 whence in a night had sprouted the leaf and blossom, 
 and the fruit had ripened, to establish by miracu- 
 lous attestation the High Priesthood of Aaron and 
 his sons over the whole house of Israel All thcs 
 were lost : and with them the mercy-seat, on whicl 
 rested the glorious Shechinah, the visible manifesta- 
 tion of the Divine presence. Judah, too, was gone 
 into captivity, the palaces of Zion were forsaken, 
 her mighty bulwarks were broken down, and the 
 city sat solitary that had been so full of people. 
 
 To attempt a description of what was then the 
 agonizing affliction of those who looked upon the ruin, 
 alike of the land, the city, and the people, would be 
 to transcribe the whole of that touching Lamentation 
 of Jeremiah ; yet in the midst of all, his faith rises, 
 strong and undepressed, though his heart is wrung 
 with sorrow, and his eyes failed with weeping day 
 and night for the destruction of the daughter of his 
 people ; and he says, " The Lord will not cast off 
 forever; but though he cause grief, yet will he 
 have compassion, according to the multitude of his 
 mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve 
 the children of men." This is the more remarkable, 
 because, under the Mosaic dispensation, national ind 
 individual prosperity in temporal things was count 3d 
 as a token of the Divine favor : it was promised as 
 such ; its withdrawal was an express avowal of 
 wrath against the sufferer ; and the utter blight 
 that had now fall ^.n upon the Jewish people, the
 
 IN FHt TWELFTH CEJJTURT. 3 
 
 dissolution of their polity, the extinction of their 
 kingdom ; above all, the profanation and wreck of 
 their most holy things, with their own forcible ex- 
 pulsion from the land that God gave unto their 
 fathers, was a trial of faith the most fiery that it 
 could be subjected to by Him, who, as a refiner of 
 silver, sits to judge and to purify his people- 
 
 Well, therefore, may we, when about to treat of 
 heavy calamities which befell the Christian church, 
 select tliis from among the things that happened for 
 examples, and which are written for our admonition 
 upon whom the ends of the world are come; for 
 we must fix our regards on times and events that no 
 eye can steadily contemplate, apart from the full 
 assurance of faith, that the Lord never did, never 
 could, never will forsake or overlook one trusting 
 soul : that, howsoever our hearts may yearn over 
 their miseries in the flesh, still we are authorized 
 to count them happy which endure ; and to remem- 
 ber that the sufferings of this present time are not 
 worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be 
 revealed, when those who have taken up their Mas- 
 ter's cross, and left all for him, shall be exalted in 
 the sight of the universe to share his final reign. 
 To which be it added, they concerning whom we 
 are about to write, have now long, long been resting 
 frDrn every labor, and enjoying the blessedness se- 
 cured to all who die in the Lord. Although the 
 
 O 
 
 consummation of their glory be not yet come, be- 
 cause he has not yet taken to him his great power :
 
 4 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 and openly reigned, still they are with him in para- 
 dise, havino- washed their robes from the stain even 
 
 ' O 
 
 of their own martyrdom, and made them white in 
 the blood of the lamb. 
 
 Not as the Mosaic, was the Christian institution 
 in temporal things : not as the visible kingdom of 
 Israel was to be the invisible kingdom of Christ, 
 during his personal absence from his people. The 
 difference between the external circumstances of the 
 two is as wide as the difference between the unveiled 
 Majesty of the awfully glorious descent from the 
 blazing heavens on Sinai's summit, and the shroud 
 of woe, and darkness, and humiliation that hung over 
 the descent from the blood-stained cross to the grave. 
 Israel of old could say, " The Lord is a man of war," 
 and under his banner they marched forth, to execute 
 vengeance upon his stubborn enemies, and to estab- 
 lish a visible dominion, to which appertained the 
 visible glory of his frequent presence, robed in the 
 cloud that rested on the place of which he had 
 vouchsafed to say, " Here will I dwell." The church 
 of Christ looks to her Master, and hears his word in 
 reference to temporal things, " If I were a king, then 
 would my subjects fight ; but now is my kingdom 
 not from hence." She knows that in order finally 
 tc reign, she must first suffer with him ; and though 
 her whole course is a warfare, it is not against flesh 
 Sind blood that she must wrestle with carnal weapons: 
 the principalities and powers and wicked spirits in 
 high places that pnmpt evil men to injure her. arc
 
 IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. A 
 
 the fres that she has to conquer ; and well do hel 
 children know that them they must overcome by th 
 blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testi- 
 mony, loving not their lives unto the death. In all 
 this there is a beauty, and a fitness, and a harmo- 
 nious adaptation of the various parts, each to its own 
 peculiar time and order of working, that we cannot 
 too attentively contemplate. They are portions of 
 the one magnificent whole which we see not yet; 
 but from which in its still shrouded mysteriousness a 
 ray of glory sometimes darts into the believing soul, 
 sufficient to cheer it under all sorrows, and to nerve 
 it into such endurance as frail humanity could other- 
 wise never attain to. 
 
 The worldly service, and the sanctuary, that be- 
 longed unto Israel, never were intended to outlast 
 their own supremacy, nor to pass into other hands 
 while they remain outcast and dispersed, reft of 
 their national privileges. The apostle distinctly 
 says, that to his brethren, his kinsmen after the flesh, 
 who are Israelites, pertain the adoption, and the 
 glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, 
 and the service of God, and the promises. In all 
 this he plainly refers to matters in which we have 
 no part, under the present dispensation ; and it was 
 in an unauthorized, unscriptural attempt to grasp 
 at these external things that the Christian church, 
 as an ecclesiastical body, lost her balance arid fell. 
 She would needs have, of her own, an outward 
 * Adoption," .irrespective of the witnessing Spirit 
 1*
 
 6 THE CHUKCH OF 
 
 within : therefore tending to grieve, to lesist and 
 finally to quench that Spirit: she would have a 
 " glory" equivalent to the divine Shechinah, though 
 to accomplish it she must make to herself an 
 imaginary divinity : she would arrogate the pos- 
 session of a " covenant" that left all beyond her 
 external pale in a state of heathen alienation from 
 God : she would be a " lawgiver" the word should 
 go forth from Constantinople, the law of the Lord 
 from Rome. She would have a " service ;" a tem- 
 ple, an altar, a sacrifice, with no better warrant than 
 could be shown for the golden calves at Bethel and 
 at Dan ; and bearing precisely the same analogy to 
 the scriptural worship of God, as did these royal 
 inventions to the holy place at Jerusalem, from 
 which they were effectual in seducing many to the 
 ruin of their own souls. She would also appropri- 
 ate " the promises :" and that so exclusively that 
 none who were not outwardly and visibly of her, 
 should have any part or lot in the heavenly Canaan : 
 and, in process of time, the self-appointed lawgiver 
 became also a judge and an executioner; so that the 
 penalty of death, imposed under the Jewish institu- 
 tion on apostates to idolatry, came to be denounced, 
 and most unsparingly carried out by her, upon all 
 such as should refuse to acknowledge the gods 
 many, and lords many, whom in the progress of her 
 judicial infatuation she was led to set .up. Hence 
 the sufferings of the true church of Christ ; whose 
 office it became, of imperative necessity, to bear
 
 IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 7 
 
 witness not only for him, but against the false one 
 who wrongfully usurped a title not her own, and 
 proclaimed herself the occupant of a vacated throne, 
 which it was God's pleasure should remain unten- 
 anted, until He come whose right it is. 
 
 " I sit as a queen," said the intoxicated self-de- 
 ceiver, when thus she had, in her own estimation, 
 climbed up to heaven ; " I am no widow, and shall 
 see no sorrow." Far different was the language of 
 the true church : she has lighted her lamp, and re- 
 mains watching at her unpretending post, until the 
 cry shall be heard, " Behold, the bridegroom com- 
 eth !" Instead of assuming the possession of those 
 rich and goodly things that belonged to the former 
 temple ; and titles, and offices, and honors, which 
 could not outlive its destruction ; the members of 
 that lowly church declare, " We have this treasure 
 in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power 
 may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled 
 on every side, yet not distressed ; we are perplexed, 
 but not in despair : persecuted, but not forsaken ; 
 cast down, but not destroyed : always bearing about 
 in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus ; that the 
 life also of Jesus might be made manifest in oui 
 body. For we which live are always delivered unto 
 death for Jesus' sake ; that the life also of Jesus 
 might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." (2. Cor. 
 iv. 711.) 
 
 This, then, is the respective attitude of the two 
 classes whom we new are to exhibit in their most
 
 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 striking contrast : the one, in attempting to rise to 
 an inaccessible height, had fallen into grievous 
 apostasy, yet madly believed themselves to have at- 
 tained the point of their ambition : and launched 
 around them the flames of hell, as though they had 
 been the lightnings of heaven intrusted to their 
 disposal. The other, firmly seated on the rock 
 where God had placed them ; exposed to every on- 
 set, every wrong, and patiently abiding all, rather 
 than quit that firm foundation for the pit where their 
 fellows were plunged, until, their testimony being 
 severally finished, they were received into the place 
 prepared for them by their ascended Lord. To the 
 eye of man, the two might be mingled together, 
 and often so indiscriminately that no mortal might 
 distinguish them in the wild commotion of the 
 hour ; but times there were when they stood apart 
 in visible relief, as bold and as obvious as was their 
 actual separation in the eye of Him who knoweth 
 them that are his. 
 
 Yet again, we have to guard against the supposi- 
 tion that a state of suffering is inseparable from the 
 profession and possession of a true faith. " Godli- 
 ness is profitable unto all things, having promise of 
 the life that now is>, and of that which is to come." 
 Many a devoted follower of the Lord Jesus has 
 passed through life, or at least through that portion 
 of mortal life which succeeded his conversion to 
 God, with no other affliction than that which the 
 Struggle of inbred corruptions against sanctifying
 
 IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY, ft 
 
 grace must occasion to every believer, Tht apoft- 
 tles, ia a season of severe persecution, addressed 
 themselves to various churches, each partaking, or 
 about to partake more or less in the same tribula- 
 tion. But even then there were periods of refresh- 
 ment, concerning which it is recorded, " And they 
 continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and 
 breaking bread from house to house, did eat their 
 meat with gladness and singleness of heart ; praising 
 God, and having favor with all the people." And 
 again, after a very fierce outbreak of persecuting 
 violence against the Lord's servants, " Then had the 
 churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and 
 Samaria, and were edified ; and walking in the fear 
 of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, 
 were multiplied." 
 
 But when the enemies of Christ become active ; 
 when, by fraud or by force, they seek to pervert the 
 right ways of the Lord, and to turn away their breth- 
 ren from the faith, then farewell to rest and peace 
 and prosperity, so far as outward things are con- 
 cerned, on the part of his true soldiers ! They 
 have, perhaps, been realizing that comfortable word, 
 " Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers 
 of that which is good ?" they must now look to the 
 context, " But and if ye suffer for righteousness' 
 sake, happy are ye ! And be not afraid of their 
 terror, neither be troubled ; but sanctify the Lord 
 God in your hearts." These and similar expres- 
 sions, with which we are all familiar, and which
 
 JO . THE CHUKCH OF CHRIST 
 
 may have yielded sweet comfort to ourselves under 
 our light afflictions, are deep wells of consolation, 
 proportioning the fulness and richness of their sup- 
 ply to the actual need of such as approach them: 
 and while one may have found them requisite to 
 yield support under the affliction of beholding a 
 frown on some beloved and honored countenance., 
 while obeying God rather than man, by refusing to 
 partake in the sinful follies of the vain world ; an 
 other has drawn from the very same words power 
 to look on the lingering tortures of a dreadful death 
 inflicted on the dearest earthly objects of the heart's 
 affection, and finally 'o endure the same without 
 even a wish to escape the fiery trial by compromis- 
 ing a firm profession of the truth us it is in Jesus. 
 This is a solitary text ; and we who possess the full 
 volume of divine consolation, must not forget that in 
 times when, perhaps, a whole community of believ- 
 ers had inly succeeded in secreting among them a 
 single manuscript copy of one isolated Gospel or 
 Epistle, a value belonged to such detached portions 
 of an imperfect fragment which we can but faintly 
 appreciate ; or how " by every word that proceedeth 
 out of the mouth of God, doth man live." 
 
 When the Lord declares to the favored Evangelist 
 his purpose to give power to his two witnesses, that 
 they should prophesy in sackcloth for the long space 
 of twelve hundred and sixty prophetic days a day 
 for a year we are led to expect something remark- 
 able, both in the great length of the afflictive iis-
 
 UTTHfi TWELFTH CENTURY. 11 
 
 pelisation, and the given power of endurance to suc- 
 cessive generations of faithful men. It imports that 
 for so long, an enemy should reign, whose efforts 
 would be systematically directed to the suppression 
 of this persevering testimony ; and that, although 
 unable to silence it, they should so far prevail as to 
 invest the witnesses with insignia of humiliation and 
 of .mourning. We, therefore, are not authorized to 
 stretch these peculiar features of a witnessing church 
 beyond the period assigned ; nor to conclude that 
 heavy trouble is the invariable badge of God's chil- 
 dren. Some whom He has hot made sad, often sad- 
 den their own hearts by needless doubts of their 
 adoption into his family, when they contrast their 
 overflowing cup of temporal blessings with the bit- 
 ter sufferings of some of whom the world was not 
 worthy. Therefore do we preface with a few cau- 
 tionary words, the narrative of a truly witnessing 
 church throughout a period of unequalled violence 
 on the part of a dominant apostasy. 
 
 But as we cannot conceive of a true follower of 
 Christ, that in a season of prosperity in temporal 
 things he should lay aside the lowliness that forms 
 a part of the Christian character, assume the dress 
 and deportment of an ostentatious worldling, and 
 follcw the dissipated practices of the ungodly mul- 
 titude, just because there is no outward hindrance 
 to his so doing ; neither can we reconcile to the 
 character of a Christian community, the adoption of 
 xternals that have ever, from the first falling away.
 
 12 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 been the badge of a corrupt and wicked apostasy. 
 Ostensibly inherited from the Jewish Church, but in 
 reality borrowed from the very worst forms of pa- 
 ganism, these ecclesiastical adornments, and arro- 
 gant assumptions, and unseemly luxuries, leading aa 
 they inevitably do to the crime of spiritual adultery, 
 are as far removed from the path chalked out for 
 that church which is the spouse of Christ, as is the 
 former course inconsistent with the duties of an in- 
 dividual member. If the Lord has put off our sack- 
 cloth and girded us with gladness, are we therefore 
 to array ourselves in purple and fine linen, to fare 
 sumptuously every day, and to trample in our pride 
 on the poor brother outside the gate of our own 
 costly mansion ? This is palpably the tendency of 
 our national church in these times, and the mourn- 
 ing garb of our fathers, their prison- walls, their pile 
 of blazing faggots, are all forgotten, in a growing 
 imitation of the gay attire, the goodly architecture, 
 the lordly rule of their ancient persecutor. Alas! 
 too prone also are we to forget the word of their 
 testimony, while learning the dulcet notes of her 
 song who slew them. 
 
 Happy would it be for us, could we more accu- 
 rately interpret, and more feelingly appropriate, that 
 much-abused term, " the church." There is no lack 
 of help so to do ; for we are repeatedly told that 
 the church is the body of Christ ; his bride ; the 
 Lamb's wife. It is described also as the temple of 
 God, because in each true believer, individually, the
 
 IN THE TWELFTH CENTER*. 11 
 
 Holy Ghos.t dwells ; each is by virtue of this in- 
 dwelling Spirit of life made to live, in the highest 
 sense of the word ; so becoming a living stone ; and 
 while a multitude of these stones may indeed ex- 
 hibit a larger and more outwardly conspicuous build- 
 ing, two or three, yea, only one, where but one is 
 left in a godless community, will form a perfect 
 temple, and that temple is the church of the living 
 God. Where a sufficient number can be collected, 
 offices will of course be filled, a form of ecclesiasti- 
 cal direction and government carried out, in accord- 
 ance with the scriptural model, that all things may 
 be done decently and in order ; but to invest with 
 the term church the external framework, teaching 
 Christians to regard that of which they themselves 
 form the substance as a somewhat placed midway 
 between Christ and their consciences, a somewhat 
 claiming the title of their dear and holy mother, and 
 as such exercising parental authority over them, is 
 to establish a confusion of words and things, tend- 
 ing not only to perplex the mind but to obscure 
 the faith, and finally to lead into subjection to an 
 irresponsible human authority those who are com- 
 manded to try all things, and to hold fast that 
 which is good ; even the form of sound words de- 
 livered by inspired men, and opened to their under- 
 standings by the same indwelling pirit of God, 
 apart from whose direct influence a man, be his ex- 
 ternal privileges what they may, is none of Christ's, 
 When Luther, in the solitude of his monkish cell, 
 2
 
 14 THE CHUKCH OF ; CHRIST : 
 
 had experienced this illumination he appears as 
 though the whole flood of revealing ligl t were con. 
 centrated on him alone. But it was not so : like 
 Andrew, he enjoyed a precedence in the vocation 
 of a ministry that was to guide the steps of multi- 
 tudes from the dark valley of the shadow of death, 
 where they sat, into the way of peace ; but God had 
 many hidden ones, so taught of the Holy Spirit that 
 they worshipped him with a pure worship, and bore, 
 no doubt, each in his own little sphere, the cross of 
 a faithful profession; though so terribly successful 
 had the enemy been in slaying the witnesses, that 
 for three years and a half no sound, no sign of life 
 was publicly recognizable to interrupt the triumph- 
 ant vaunt of an unbroken- rule. In like manner, at 
 the commencement of that era which seems then to 
 have closed, we can discover but one, and he an ob- 
 scure man, to whom was committed the steward- 
 ship of the mysteries of God ; long thrust from 
 view, and set at nought, until to all appearance they 
 were withdrawn from earth, to make room for the 
 swelling imposture, the mystery of iniquity that 
 usurped their name find place. It is a very remark- 
 able feature in the history of that dark period of 
 the Christian Church to which our attention is now 
 to be drawn. The world, even the world callintr it- 
 
 O 
 
 self Christian, and therefore assuming to be also the 
 church, in a state so dark that the lighting of a 
 single candle forms an epoch in its annals ; the 
 multiplication of lights continued under a sustained
 
 IN THE TWELFTH CE.JTURY. 15 
 
 and vehement effort on the part of their adversaries 
 for more than twelve centuries and a half to extin- 
 guish them ; followed by the renewed though very 
 brief reign of that gross darkness, and the relight- 
 ing again from a solitary taper, of such a blaze as 
 has spread, more or less, into all lands, and which 
 certainly will not again be put out. 
 
 But the gates of hell never so prevailed as to 
 leave the Lord without a little company on earth, to 
 each of whom that gracious promise was fulfilled, 
 "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of 
 the world." Where but two or three could be 
 gathered together, rightly professing his name, there 
 was He in the midst of them ; and if the sad expe- 
 rience of Paul became that of an unsupported indi- 
 vidual, "No man stood with me," his also was 
 Paul's rich consolation, "Nevertheless, the Lord 
 stood with me, and strengthened me." Poor indeed 
 is the spectacle of pomp and ceremony compared 
 with scenes like these, when the poor, persecuted, 
 harassed, helpless outcast, pursued by the world's 
 scorn, and well-nigh crushed beneath its cruel vto-" 
 lence, rises by faith above its deadly malice, and lays 
 hold on the Lord's strength, and reposes on his 
 promise : when that strength also is manifested, and 
 that promise fulfilled, in the super-human endurance 
 of the weakest trembler ; and the joyous alacrity 
 with which death in its most hideous forms is wel- 
 comed, because to depart is to be with Christ. Once 
 it was given to a terrified Israelite to obtain a
 
 16 THE CUT; ECU OF CHRIST 
 
 glimpse-of the dazzling hosts of heaven, majestically 
 encamped around the prophet of the Lord, to de- 
 liver him from his pursuers : one little moment were 
 those favored eyes freed from the mists of earth, 
 and strengthened to behold the flashing brightness 
 of that terribly glorious array ; for " Behold, the 
 mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire 
 round about Elisha." No such open vision has been 
 vouchsafed during this suffering dispensation ; but 
 we know assuredly that still as of old, " The angel 
 of the Lord encampeth about them that fear him, 
 and delivereth them ;" and we may, as believers 
 we must add to the sad and sorrowful pageantry 
 of earth the undiscovered glories that in deep arid 
 true reality abide where the believer dwells, and 
 which wait but the moment of his mortal dissolution 
 to burst in all their ravishing splendor on his gaze 
 to wrap him in their own celestial panoply, and tc 
 enrol him jn their blessed company for ever. 
 
 There is yet a needful caution to be observed, 
 when investing any community with the name and 
 character of the Lord's witnessing Church. We 
 must not lose sight of the cautionary parable which 
 instructs us, that when a field has been sown with 
 pure wheat by the hand of the Divine husbandman, 
 tLr enemy will watch his opportunity to mingle as 
 plentifully as he can, the worthless and deceptive 
 tares that equally grieve and perplex the Lord's 
 faithful seivants. These are not, in the general
 
 Ill THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 17 
 
 course of God's providential dealings, rooted up at 
 once, but are left to the great day of separation. 
 And not only in the parable, but in other parts oi 
 scripture, we are warned of the existence of such 
 incongruities in the composition of what, as a dis- 
 tinct body, we are justified in calling a truly spiritual 
 church, with a pointed reference too to the promi- 
 nent position to be occupied by that protesting and 
 suffering congregation. Thus in Daniel, " And they 
 that understand among the people shall instruct 
 many ; yet they shall fall by the sword, and by 
 flame, by captivity and by spoil, many days. Now 
 when they fall, they shall be holpen with a little 
 help, but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. 
 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to 
 try them, and to purge, and to make them white, 
 even to the time of the end." 
 
 And again, our Lord repeats the warning : " Then 
 shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall 
 kill you ; and ye shall be hated of all nations for 
 my Name's sake. And then shall many be offended, 
 and shall betray one another, and shall hate one an- 
 other. And many false prophets shall arise, and 
 shall deceive many : and because iniquity shall abound, 
 tho love of many shall wax cold." 
 
 Such, alas ! has been, and such ever will be the 
 case while Satun remains at large, with power to 
 exercise his subtle craft, by transforming himself 
 into the semblance of an angel of light, and his 
 ministers into ministers of righteousness. Is there 
 2*
 
 18 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 a congregation among ourselves that would not, 
 if individually called over, and e?ainined with the 
 keen eye of a scrutinizing foe, furnish some instance 
 of unholy living, accompanied with a practical de- 
 nial of truths formally confessed by the lips, and 
 affording a sample sufficient to condemn the whole 
 company, if it could but be proved that all his fel- 
 low-worshippers resembled him ? When the faith- 
 ful preacher addresses himself to impenitent sin- 
 ners, hardened rebels, or hypocritical pretenders, 
 who yield a lip-service in which their hearts have 
 no part, is he ever able to persuade himself that 
 even amid the limited numbers then present before 
 him, no conscience will bear secret testimony to the 
 justness of such description ? If it be thus in a land 
 of full spiritual freedom, and where the light of 
 revelation encounters no intercepting clouds to bar 
 its free course, what must we expect to meet with, 
 in records penned by adverse hands, purporting to 
 be those of a poor limited company of witnesses 
 agains't the wicked spirits who then ruled in all the 
 high places of the earth ? Even a child may discern 
 at a glance that the policy of Satan was obviously 
 to put forward some rank tares in the field of wheat, 
 and to obtain a judgment of his own suggesting, not 
 only on their individual quality, but on their perfect 
 resemblance to all that grew around them : as a 
 justification of the sentence that doomed them :o be 
 all cut down together in one premature, indiscrimi- 
 nate harvest of death. A vast deal of learning and
 
 IK THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 19 
 
 laborious research have been expended in controver- 
 sial investigations of this subject ; which is. after all, 
 only to be rightly apprehended by admitting freely 
 the pure light of Divine truth into an arena where 
 the respective combatants are too read)' to assail 
 each other in the dark, with weapons as carnal as 
 the hottest forge of persecuting cruelty could make 
 them : what else are the annals of superstitious 
 monks, mercenary apostates, and sanguinary inquisi- 
 tors, from which are drawn the particulars of this 
 fearful epoch ? 
 
 From such doubtful disputations we, however, 
 mean to stand aloof. Our business is to deal with 
 facts. We find a nominally ecclesiastical ruler, sit- 
 ting in the seat, and invested with the power and 
 great authority that once belonged to the pagan 
 emperors of ancient Rome, the unquestionable instru- 
 ments of Satanic cruelty, fraud, violence, and blas- 
 phemy. We recognize in him every mark with 
 which the spirit of prophecy has branded the great 
 Apostasy that was to work dire havoc among the 
 flock of Christ, and to make war with the saints, to 
 wear them out, to persevere for a long course of 
 time, even to the actual silencing, for a limited space, 
 their public testimony. We find the same ruler 
 suddenly gathering his forces, and investing with 
 the character of a holy war the merciless enterprise, 
 insomuch that to take part in it was to purchase 
 pardon for all the sins of a long life at the hand of 
 this it* pious pretender to divine authority ; we te-
 
 20 THE , HrRCH OF CHK.ST 
 
 hold him precipitating them upon a. provirce be- 
 longing to one of bis ten vassal kings, carrying utter 
 desolation through it, " by the sword and by flame, 
 by captivity and by spoil," for "many days;" even 
 until there was none left of those who had provoked 
 the visitation by professing a faith consistent with 
 what was once delivered to the saints, and therefore 
 necessarily opposed to his own most blarpi.emous 
 perversion of that faith by means of such doctrines 
 and such practices as turned the truth of God into 
 a lie. Moreover, we find the people so " persecuted" 
 unto the death, uniformly "reviled" by -writers on 
 the adverse side ; their names " cast out as evil," 
 and a sustained attempt made to render thejn " hated 
 of all nations" even to remote posterity, by bringing 
 against them accusations similar to thoso brought 
 against their Divine Master, who was denounced as 
 gluttonous and a wine-bibber ; and accused of hav- 
 ing a devil ; who was arraigned on a charge of com- 
 bined sedition and blasphemy, and put to death by 
 the Roman power, on such testimony as could not 
 even wear a semblance of agreement with itself, 
 much less of criminating weight against the innocent 
 victim. In all this we trace an accumulation of pre- 
 dicted signs, not to be brought together by any in- 
 genuity of man ; nor by such ingenuity at its utn ost 
 stretch to be explained away. Men who, eithei to 
 protect a secret ally, or to uphold some favorite 
 scheme of interpretation peculiar to themselves, 
 would draw a veil over the great papal apostasy,
 
 IN THE TWELFTH CEXTURV. l 
 
 ;onc Celling from our sight its most unmistakable 
 features, in order to prepare us for a different mani- 
 festation of the long-doomed Man of Sin, may be 
 tempted to avail themselves of the railing accusa- 
 tions brought against our martyred brethren by men 
 more daring than angels are (Jude 9) ; nay, gravely 
 tc adduce and to adopt the flagitious records of the 
 murderous Inquisition, noted down from the deliri- 
 ous exclamations of victims lying on the rack, and 
 echoing unconsciously, or alike unconsciously as- 
 senting to, the wily promptings of their diabolical 
 torturers ; or else duly coined, to meet any possible 
 emergency of future investigation, if, peradventure, 
 God should raise up an avenger of innocent blood, 
 with power to call them to account for their tremen- 
 dous enormities. Into no such track are we in dan- 
 ger of straying : we have no human system to up- 
 hold, or historical evidence to explain away ; but sim- 
 ply adhering to the fact t'.:at " thus it was written," 
 and thus it behooved the people of Christ to suffer 
 with him, preparatory to their future participation 
 in his glorious reign, we would pursue the story : 
 rot unmindful of the farther analogy, that THEY suf- 
 fered also at the hand of the beast, when recently 
 installed in the full plenitude of that sovereignty of 
 old exercised by the Dragon, who condemned, and 
 tortured, and crucified HIM. 
 
 If the blood of the martyrs may be called the 
 seed of the church, the persecution that follows 
 fheir survivors m;iy also be regarded as the wind
 
 22 THE CHtfKCtt 01 
 
 commissioned to scatter that seed, and to carft 
 it into places already prepared for its reception 
 " Wind and storm, fulfilling God's word," though 
 terrible, are precious agents in the vast, mysterious 
 laboratory where His unseen hand directs every 
 process with unerring skill. It is beautiful to_con. 
 template the rising of a little church, like a tender 
 plant, in some sequestered nook, where bright sun- 
 beams visit it in the morning, and gentle dews of 
 heaven fall softly at evening's close, and nothing in- 
 tervenes to check its prosperous growth through all 
 the early stages of vegetable life. Summer ad- 
 vances ; the bud is formed, the flower expands, and 
 many a roving bee perchance alights, extracting 
 nurture from its pleasant hoard, then wings his way 
 enriched with spoil that no rude robber's eye could 
 have discovered, nor the hand of plunder grasped. 
 Thus it flourishes, and in due season the ripening 
 seeds attain maturity, ready to burst their pods, and 
 to fall within the narrow circuit of their own light 
 shadow around the parent stem. But God will 
 propagate the goodly plant in other soils ; at his 
 word the f x>rmy wind ariseth ; and while the forest- 
 tree that sheltered it perhaps bends and breaks, and 
 falls to overwhelm it, the delicate germs of the 
 crushed flower beneath are borne aioft by the brc-aih 
 of that destru rtive gale, and flee before it to othsi 
 lands, even to the place which God hath appointed 
 them ; and there they fall unseen, and slowly vege- 
 tate beneath the surface, and spring up, men know
 
 m THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 23 
 
 not how, in a place where nothing resembling them 
 hath ever been known to flourish. 
 
 If ever there was a race to which this comparison 
 might be said to apply, it surely was that ultimately 
 known as THE ALBIGENSES. A church, indeed, not 
 a race of men, we must account them ; for they re- 
 plenished many a waste place upon- the earth, not 
 by peopling it with successive generations of their 
 own stock, but by leaving here and there a root of 
 God's own planting, by means that he alone could 
 provide, which grew distinct from all around it, ful- 
 filled its mission, and was gone by means of his over- 
 ruling. And then we are left to search about for 
 the next manifestation of that undying power with 
 which He has invested the branch of his planting; 
 and in some distant land, perhaps, too, under a 
 wholly dissimilar name, we recognize this work of 
 his hands, in which he is perpetually glorified. 
 
 Thus it was, and thus indeed it must needs have 
 been throughout the dark ages of universal delusion, 
 when they who arrogated an exclusive title to the 
 name and offices of the Christian Church, made in- 
 quest as diligent for the true followers of the Lord 
 as did Herod for the infant Messiah Himself; and 
 with purpose no less deadly. Every plant that God 
 had planted, it was their business to root up ; and 
 the long continuance in any place of a community 
 essentially Christian, must have involved the inter 
 position of a miraculous power not openly vouch- 
 safed to the present dispensation. Accordingly we
 
 24 ThB CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 must not, expect to meet With a church in its purity 
 otherwise than of a migratory character ; and where 
 we find one permanently abiding in populous pUv.c. e , 
 we may be assured that much of alloy must Live 
 entered into its composition, inducing compromises) 
 and tolerating abuses dangerous to its very exist- 
 ence ; and calling for some searching process of 
 trial and separation. In all this we trace a worlt 
 divinely wise and good, by which He who taught 
 his apostles to be jealous over the early churches 
 with a godly jealousy, still preserves his spouse in 
 the purity of her faith and love, even though it be 
 by suddenly and severely snatching her out of tho 
 midst of perils from which she could not have ex- 
 tricated herself, and from temptations where no 
 other door of escape was set open. When the 
 Lord's way is altogether in the sea, and his path iu 
 the deep waters, so that his footsteps cannot be 
 known, we are bound to rest in the assurance thai 
 all his works are righteous, and to say, " Thou art 
 good, and doost good :" but it is cheering to trace 
 when we are permitted so to do, the course of his 
 providence by the gleaming light that his own word 
 throws upon it. 
 
 Some " plant of a noble vine, wholly a right 
 seed," was long secretly growing up in the heart ol 
 those Southern Provinces of France which after- 
 wards yielded so awful a harvest of blood. The 
 soil was perhaps not unfavorable to its reception, 
 torn pared with others : for. like the church of an-
 
 IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 25 
 
 eient Britain, these dioceses had offered a prolonged 
 resistance to the encroaching usurpations of the 
 Bishop of Rome ; and though their independence 
 h-ad tx:en crushed, and the universal yoke kid upon 
 their reluctant shoulders, there lingered amongst 
 them, no doubt, deep traits of what is hard to eradi- 
 cate, where it has once been planted in faith, and 
 watered by prayer even that freedom wherewith 
 Christ had made their fathers free. Yet the revival 
 was attributed, and no doubt justly, to foreign influ- 
 ence : a people had settled among them, driven from 
 other lands by the persecuting sword, who worship, 
 ped God in spirit and in truth : being branded as 
 heretics by the princes of this world ; a sect every- 
 where spoken against, to whose charge were laid 
 things that they knew not, because those who sought 
 occasion against them could find no real fault, noth- 
 ing to allege but an exemplary devotion to the law 
 of their God, and they were therefore constrained 
 to heap upon them accusations utterly devoid of any 
 foundation ; as had been the practice of ancient 
 Rome in dealing with the primitive church. In- 
 deed, the same crimes were specified, or enormities 
 very similar to those attributed to the early martyrs: 
 Manicheism, in which they generally summed them 
 up, being a tissue of kindred abominations. So 
 sarly as the year 1165, the date of their original 
 settlement as enlightened believers, walking contrary 
 to the doctrines of the papacy, had become obscure' 
 3
 
 26 fflE CHURCH Of CHRIST 
 
 their enemies could not ascertain it. In a canon o! 
 the council of Tours this is virtually admitted. " In 
 the country about Toulouse," says this document, 
 " there sprung up long ayo a damnable heresy, which 
 by little and little, like a cancer, spreading iiself to 
 the neighboring places, in Gascoigne, had already 
 infected many other provinces ; which whilst, like a 
 serpent, it hid itself in its own windings and twinings, 
 crept on more secretly, and threatened more danger 
 to the simple and unwary. Wherefore we do com- 
 mand all bishops and priests dwelling in these parts, 
 to keep a watchful eye upon these heretics, and un- 
 der the pain of excommunication, to forbid all per- 
 sons, as soon as these heretics are discovered, from 
 presuming to afford them any abode in their coun- 
 try, or to lend them any assistance, or to entertain 
 any commerce with them in buying or selling ; so 
 that at least by the loss of the advantages of hu- 
 man society they may be compelled to repent of the 
 error of their life. And if any prince, making him- 
 self partaker of their iniquity, shall endeavor to op- 
 pose these decrees, let him be struck with the same 
 anathema. And if they shall be seized by any 
 Catholic prince, and cast into prison, let them be 
 punished by confiscation of all their goods : and 
 lcause they frequently come together from divers 
 parts into one hiding place, and because they have 
 no other ground for dwelling together save only their 
 agreement and consent in error; therefore we will, that 
 such their conventicles be both diligently searched af-
 
 IN THE tWELiffk CfiNTtR?. 21 
 
 ter, and when they are found, that they >e exanl 
 ined according to canonical severity." 
 
 In this brief extract, what a picture is presented 
 to the mind's eye of the adverse parties referred to i 
 On the one hand we have the dragon's voice, pro- 
 ceeding from beneath the lamb's horns, proclaiming 
 " that no one might buy or sell, save he that had the 
 mark or the number of the beast,'' which these 
 harmless sojourners hnd not. We see him exercis* 
 ing, in daring usurpation, the authority of Him who 
 alone i? "Prince of the kings of the earth;" and 
 extending this anathema with all its fearful acconi' 
 paniments of deposition and death, to any sovereign 
 who should presume to throw the shield of his royal 
 clemency over subjects dwelling within his own ter- 
 ritories ; at the same time dictating to such as were 
 willing to be the tools of this Antichristian cruelty, 
 the mode to be adopted in dealing with their prison- 
 ers : namely, that evidence should be sought for of 
 their having lived in Christian communion with 
 brethren, partakers of the same precious faith, and 
 on such evidence they were to be punished, not ac- 
 cording to the civil or criminal code of the country, 
 but with CANONICAL severity : a phrase, the full pur- 
 port of which we shall better understand in pursu- 
 ing the history. 
 
 On the other hand, we see the accused, as de- 
 scribed by their enemies, dwelling quietly, giving 
 none offence, earning their sustenance by lawfu, 
 merchandise, and assembling together, not to pro
 
 88 THE cmmcM o? CHRIST 
 
 mote dissatisfaction to any constituted authority, not 
 to stir up strife, or to plot any mischievous device 
 whatsoever, but simply because there existed among 
 them one heart, one mind, and one faith. " They 
 have," says this canon, " no other ground for dwell- 
 ing together save only their agreement and consent 
 in error" -that is, in the pure doctrine of the Gos- 
 pel of Jesus Christ, who has left on record a mark 
 of true discipleship thus unwittingly recognized by 
 the persecutor of his church. " By this shall all 
 men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one 
 another:" and in like manner we are enabled to 
 account for the rapid spread of the truth by means 
 so silent, so unobtrusive, and to their adversaries so 
 inexplicable. It was in ansAver to the Redeemer's 
 prayer, " That they all may be one ; as thou, Father, 
 art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one 
 in us ; that the world may believe that thou hast sent 
 me." Holding the faith in unity of spirit, in the 
 bond of peace, and in righteousness of life, this 
 little company, as a candle of the Lord's lighting, 
 shone in a dark place ; and many were thereby won 
 to cast away the works of darkness : and to join 
 themselves unto them, in reality and truth; some, 
 no doubt, shamed or persuaded into an external 
 reformation of manners, rested there, unchanged in 
 lioart, to fall before the first temptation, when per- 
 secution should arise because of the word, and so 
 to bring scandal on the holy cause to which they 
 had never b*?u really devoted; and perhaps, to be-
 
 IN THE TWELFTH CENTl RY. iJ9 
 
 come accusers of the brethren, confirming by feigned 
 confessions under their assumed character the cruel 
 calumnies of the enemy. Others, again, acted the 
 part so frequent in the Romish community, of which 
 we find an example in the ancient enemies of our 
 Lord, who " sent forth spies, which would feign 
 themselves just men, that they might take hold of 
 his words, so that they might deliver him to th 
 power and authority of the Governor. And they 
 asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou say- 
 est and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the 
 person of any, but teachest the way of God truly." 
 He to whom these deceivers came, " perceived their 
 craftiness, and said, Why tempt ye me ?" but nc 
 such heart-searching power was conferred on his 
 poor followers in after days, when wolves in sheep's 
 clothing thus entered their humble fold, and were 
 received by the confiding flock as being of them- 
 selves. Beyond what will eA'er be found cleaving 
 to man in the flesh, even the corrupt inheritance of 
 a nature striving against the sanctifying Spirit, 
 these masked inquisitors found nothing whereon to 
 ground an accusation ; but they were enabled to as- 
 certain the precise character of doctrines univer- 
 sally held by the true professors of a pure faith, 
 and to mark out the prominent points of their op- 
 position to the tenets of Rome. At the same time 
 they enjoyed, and no doubt made the most of, 
 many opportunities of speciously introducing un- 
 sound opinions, and teaching things contrary to the 
 3*
 
 30 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 faith that they falsely professed to hold. For, b 
 it remembered, the emissaries chosen for such work 
 are always men of learning, skill, and subtilty, com- 
 bined with hardness of heart, and obduracy of mind, 
 sufficiently proved to serve as a guarantee against 
 the intrusion of compunctious visitings, or any fal- 
 tering in their wicked purpose. 
 
 Thus beset on all sides, while as yet they appre- 
 hended no evil, but dwelt lovingly in the midst of 
 a population remarkable all over the world for its 
 refinement, and devotion to the gentler arts ; a land 
 of painting and poetry and song, a land of vines 
 and fig-trees, and all the features of luxuriant beauty 
 that could combine to mould the characters of its 
 inhabitants into that pliability which, to the eye of 
 man, promises little of resistance when a sterner 
 force is brought to bear upon it ; the little church 
 of the Lord's hidden ones was marked out for an 
 easy prey. While the carnal weapon was whetted 
 to its keenest edge, other and more insidious modes 
 of injury were adopted, and the whole machinery 
 of injustice brought into such effectual operation as 
 proved the little sacerdotal horn to be a worthy off- 
 shoot from the forehead of the original Beast, the 
 mighty pagan empire, which was not only strong 
 and terrible to break in pieces and to devour, but 
 also remarkable for stamping the residue under his 
 defiling feet. As the voracious serpent draws his 
 unclean saliva over the victim that he is about to 
 devour, so with the polluting exudations of its ca
 
 IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 31 
 
 lumnious tongue, did this destroyer besmear its des- 
 
 O / 
 
 tined prey. History finds it still in a measure ad- 
 hering to the memory of the dead who died in the 
 Lord ; and with it finds also the emphatic solution 
 of what mifjht otherwise be embarrassing. " The 
 
 O ff 
 
 disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant 
 above his lord : it is enough for the disciple that he 
 be as his Master, and the servant as his lord. If 
 they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, 
 how much more must they call them of his house- 
 hold ? Fear them not, therefore : for there is noth- 
 ing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hid that 
 shall not be known." 
 
 Abundantly supplied as the public is with the de- 
 scriptions of modern travellers, and familiarized too 
 to a great extent by personal observation, with the 
 theatre of this most unholy war, it would now be 
 superfluous to enter upon a minute geographical 
 detail. True it is, that some of our most entertain- 
 ing tourists, who excel in the minutiae of descrip- 
 tion, contriving to bring the reader acquainted alike 
 with the features of a landscape and with the individ- 
 uals who people it, have roamed and rested, looked, 
 and sketched, and written for days together, in the 
 heart of that scenery where it might be supposed 
 that every hill and valley, every streamlet and plain, 
 every old gray ruin, and rugged mountain-pass, 
 must necessarily, yea, unavoidably, call up the most 
 Ihrillingly-ta aching reminiscences in the mind of a
 
 82 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 Protestant, pervading the narrative with congenial 
 thoughts and images ; yet have they passed over, 
 as things unknown or unworthy to be remembered, 
 all that related to the " slaughtered saints" of old. 
 We read the familiar names of Toulouse and Foix, 
 of Bezieres and Carcassonne, and perhaps feast our 
 eyes on some spirited sketch of their general out- 
 lines and venerable remains : but in vain do we seek 
 for a passing allusion to what invests them with an 
 interest so deep and dear. This is one of the wor^t 
 signs of that indifferentism which is eating out the 
 very life of our national religion, and smoothing the 
 way of approach for an enemy as insidiously noise- 
 less now, as formerly he was terrific in the broad 
 display of his unbridled ferocity. 
 
 However, with so many sources of local informa- 
 tion open to all, we need merely to glance at the 
 outline map of those territories through which the 
 sword of bitter persecution cut its sanguinary way. 
 This lay within the Duchies of Aquitaine, Gas- 
 coigne and Narbonne ; the Marquisates of Toulouse 
 and Provence, with a small portion of Beam, and of 
 Basse Navarre. It included the petty sovereignties 
 of Saintonge, Limosin, Perigord, Auvergne, Velay, 
 Agen, Quercy, Rouergue, Gevaudan, and.Alby, in 
 Aquitaine ; Bourdelois, Armagnac, P'ezensac, As- 
 tarac, Bigorre, Comminges, and Conserans, in Gas- 
 coigne ; Uzes, Nismes, Lodeve, Maguelonne, Be- 
 ziers, Agde, Narbonne, Fenouilledes, and Roussil- 
 lon, in Narbonne ; Toulouse, Carcassonne, Rozes,
 
 IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 33 
 
 and FoiA, in Toulouse ; and in Provence, Viennois, 
 Valentinois, Vivarois, and Aries. The southern 
 boundary of this memorable district is lost among 
 the mountain masses of the Pyrenees, and the wa- 
 ters of the Golf de Lion : clusters of those majestic 
 heights also stretching along the eastern borders of 
 Toulouse and Aquitaine, and cutting across the lat- 
 ter towards the north-west, in a wild, irregular 
 ridge : Narbonne, and the eastern side of the boun- 
 daries in Provence, are likewise mountainous : the 
 remaining, and by far the larger portion of the scene 
 of war, is comparatively a level. 
 
 Although these lands all lay within the limits of 
 France, the powerful lords who divided them among 
 themselves yieTded allegiance, some to England, but 
 the greater number to the Spanish king of Arragon. 
 This, however, matters little to our purpose : the 
 contest was not between rival monarchs, nor was its 
 object the occasion of territorial dominion. Not the 
 king of France, but the bishop of Rome, unfurled 
 the standard of exterminating war ; and although 
 
 o o 
 
 it ended in establishing the rule of the former over 
 a desolate, depopulated country, it opened with no 
 other purpose than to hunt and destroy the scat- 
 tered sheep of Christ's fold : in scriptural language, 
 " the beast made war with the saints to overcome 
 them." 
 
 Fertile, beautiful, and undisturbed by internal dis- 
 sensions ; the land was as the garden of Eden com- 
 p-ired with wlnt its destroyers made it. There was,
 
 34 THE CHUKCH OF CHRIST 
 
 indeed, too much of outward peace, too much of 
 carnal security , and of the luxuiious indulgences 
 that always prove inimical to the spiritual welfare 
 of those who long recline in the sunshine of cloud- 
 less prosperity. The Prdvencals had become fa- 
 mous throughout Europe for the refinement of their 
 taste, and their unrivalled attainments in all that 
 art and literature could boast in an age of over- 
 spreading darkness, the natural result of monkish 
 superstition and prostration of intellect beneath the 
 despotism of ecclesiastical usurpation. This enlight- 
 enment had spread into surrounding districts, and 
 blended as it was with higher, purer rays of spirit- 
 ual brightness, unknown in other lands, we cannot 
 marvel that its brilliancy attracted the frowning gaze 
 of those who hated every light that emanated not 
 from the sparks of their own kindling : sparks of a 
 fire that burns, but cannot illuminate, either the 
 spirit or the mind. 
 
 The various nobles among whom the land was 
 partitioned, though they did homage to the mon- 
 arch, each reigned as a king over his own portion. 
 His palace was a castle, generally in a fortified 
 town, the capital of his little state. He marshalled 
 an army of disciplined vassals and free citizens, with 
 their knightly commanders and officers ; exercising 
 alike in military and in civil matters an authority 
 that scarcely brooked the intervention of any higher 
 power, save that terrible engine of universal tyranny, 
 " the Church," as it was falsely called. Neither
 
 IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 85 
 
 befcre the sceptre of France, nor that of England, 
 nor of Arragon, nor of imperial Germany, did the 
 spirit of those princely nobles quail : allegiance they 
 owned, and each was ready, on demand, to head an 
 armed force, and march to his sovereign's aid ; or 
 to assist in his councils, or promote in any way 
 his royal interests. But to cow them into trem- 
 bling submission, to herd them together like frighted 
 deer, or to intimidate them severally into the sur- 
 render of their just rights, and the abandonment of 
 their lawful heritages to a foreign spoiler, it was 
 needful to unfurl the banner of the cross against 
 them : to invade their territories by a company of 
 cowled priests ; or to address to them a pastoral 
 exhortation from one who called himself " servant 
 of the servants of God." There were few, if any, 
 among them, who feared man ; there were few, it is 
 to be apprehended, who feared God ; but if there 
 was one who caused it to be surmised that he feared 
 not the bishop of Rome, we shall presently read his 
 name and history in characters traced by his own 
 warm life-blood. 
 
 In this characteristic feature of the chiefs, their 
 people participated just in proportion as the light 
 of the Gospel had failed to penetrate their homes 
 nnd hearts. They were all attached by duty, and 
 the majority of them by grateful affection, to the 
 reigning nobles, who allowed them a degree of re- 
 ligious freedom unknown in other countries. The 
 higher classes, onscious of their intellectual supe
 
 36 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 riority, viewed with disdain the ignorant and tazy 
 monks, who droned away their lives ; or saw with 
 indignation the riotous waste in which the enormous 
 ecclesiastical revenues of the bishops and superior 
 clergy were squandered, while the natural indepen- 
 dence of a cultivated mind rose against their assump- 
 tions of a superiority, that on no grounds whatever 
 they could justly claim. The lower orders, where 
 the knowledge of God had not enabled them spirit- 
 ually to discern the utterly anti-Christian character 
 of the whole system, were yet shocked and disgusted 
 by the scandalous profligacy of life that seemed to 
 cleave as a badge to that order of men who, on the 
 plea of peculiar sanctity, arrogated to themselves 
 the right of lording it over their faith and con- 
 sciences. None among them were so universally, 
 or so deservedly despised, as the Romish clergy ; it 
 passed into a proverb : " I would rather be a priest 
 than do such a thing," was the most indignant form 
 of denial on the part of any person accused of a 
 criminal or disgraceful action. 
 
 This gave the clrrgy no trouble : their revenues 
 were safe, and all that money could command was 
 within their grasp. A due moasure of outward 
 respect was, of course, accorded to the bishop or 
 priest, monk or friar, when he appeared ; its object 
 being the office, not the man. When the Popes 
 were fighting men, and open unvarnished debau- 
 chees, it could not be expected that those who 
 formed the subordinate members where they were
 
 IN THE TWELFTH jfiNTtTK". 37 
 
 the head, should strike into a different path. It 
 could not !> expected that the harlot, in the pride 
 of her power, glorying in her shame, her head 
 srowned with universal dominion, her forehead 
 branded with blasphemous mystery, her eyes glar- 
 Tg with drunken rnge, her cheeks burning with un- 
 holy fires, and her hand lifting high the golden cup 
 of abominations, should divest some of her limbs of 
 their purple and scarlet and gems, to clothe them in 
 linen outwardly white, if not pure, and by such con- 
 trast to heighten the horrors of her general aspect. 
 The inhabitants of those provinces had light enough 
 to see her as she was, and hated if they did not fear 
 her. 
 
 Oh for a record, a sketch, a fragment of history 
 pertaining to the Church of Christ in those days, and 
 in that region, unblotted by the foul pen of calumny 
 and triumphant revenge ! In vain do we sigh for 
 such a relic ; the besom of destruction swept too 
 effectually over the devoted tract ; and we have no 
 archives to search nothing but the book which an 
 enemy hath written, to guide us in tracing the foot- 
 steps of the flock through that dark valley of the 
 shadow of death. 
 
 Yet imagination can conceive without overstep- 
 ping the bounds of sober probability, what was the 
 daily life of a Christian family under the nominal 
 sway of Antichrist. Long neglect on the part of 
 the Roman Pontiffs, who were usually engaged in 
 more important conquests, or immersed in sensuality 
 4
 
 33 fttE CtttfRCM Ofr CMtsT 
 
 beyond the power of rousing themselves, had pef i 
 mitted the Gospel to take deep root, to spread 
 widely, and to bear much fruit over a varied tract 
 of country. In high places, in the cathedrals and 
 parish-churches, all went on as usual. Images were 
 set in every niche, tapers lighted before their shrines, 
 votive gifts suspended round them ; and all the ser 
 vices of the Romish ritual duly celebrated. Here, 
 at stated hours, sat the priest in the confessional, 
 ready to dispense absolution to sinners on the accus- 
 tomed terms: there hung the pix, over the high al* 
 tar, containing a wafer, to which the special tidoni' 
 tion due to ' Saint Sacrament' might always be di- 
 rected : there the mass was sung, the censer smoked, 
 the holy water flew right and left, sprinkled by the 
 hand of priestly benediction : and there, at the accus- 
 tomed seasons, appeared the reigning count, with 
 his knights, burgesses, vassals, and a goodly assem- 
 blage of worshippers, all devoutly engaged, so far aa 
 externals went, in worshipping they knew not what. 
 No doubt, many prostrated themselves there who 
 secretly held a purer faith ; and who, if any of the 
 rulers had openly professed a scriptural belief in 
 Christ, would gladly have acknowledged him too, 
 but of these we cannot speak, otherwise than by a 
 reference to our Lord's emphatic warning, " Whoso- 
 ever shall confess me before men. him will 1 confess 
 also before my Father which is in heaven ; but who- 
 soever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny 
 before my Father v hich is in heaven."
 
 Ifl THE TWELFTH cENTim?. 39 
 
 There were some who thus openly confessed their 
 crucified Lord, and they were numerous. These 
 gave no heed to the noisy chimes that summoned 
 them to a strange worship : they passed by the opon 
 doors of each conspicuous temple, rendering no hom- 
 age to the idol crucifix, taking no notice of the con- 
 secrated water, muttering no prayer to departed 
 saints, nor deeming that aught of holiness belonged 
 either to the building or to any of the uses to whith 
 it was applied. Quietly they pursued their way, the 
 father with his matronly partner on his arm, the 
 brother leading the sister, and the little ones of the 
 household treading with subdued looks in the foot- 
 prints of those who preceded them. We may fol- 
 low them, as they pass along, now jostled by the 
 giddy group who are hurrying to come in for a share 
 of the unmeaning services that speak neither to the 
 heart, nor to the conscience, nor to the understand- 
 ing ; nor can exert the slightest influence either of 
 direction or restraint, over the course of their wasted 
 lives- now smiled iipon by a passing friend, who knows 
 and respects their scriptural principles, but lacks 
 courage to turn and accompany them, -now greeted 
 by the whispered blessing of a neighbor, who hopes 
 ere evening's close to swell the hymn of praise that 
 will issue from their lips. On they go, grieving 
 over the desecrating frivolities, or the eager spirit of 
 worldly business, that perpetually break down the 
 barriers placed by the Lord around his day of rest ; 
 and which, strong as adamant, in the view of a be-
 
 40 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 lievev, are regarded by the disciples of Rome as colv 
 web threads, intrusively thrown across their path. 
 
 Our Albigensic patriarch has now conducted his 
 little party beyond the utmost boundary of the vil- 
 lage town ; and very lovely is the landscape tha 
 opens to their eye, resting in that sweet Sabbath 
 repose which is breathed upon it neither from the 
 Bkies above, nor from the earth beneath, but from 
 the heart of him who contemplates it through the 
 medium of a divine ordinance. The sunbeam seems 
 to fall more broadly, the trees to spread more grace- 
 fully their welcome shade. The hills rise, as if as- 
 piring to an altitude that should bring them nearer 
 heaven ; the little flowers deck the earth as though 
 to brighten her Sunday robe ; and the streamlet as 
 il murmurs by, speaks of the bounteous hand that 
 bade it gush for man's refreshment. Far as the e}e 
 can reach, the vineyards stretch along the hilly slope, 
 spreading their clusters to the ray ; and then, on 
 the other side, a strip of level land is covered with 
 verdant pasturage, where the flock and the herd 
 browse unmolested, and for a time un watched ; for 
 the shepherd boy has asked and gained a few hours' 
 holiday, not that he may join in the gambols of some 
 thoughtless group, intent only on making themnelves 
 merry, but because he loves the company of those 
 who forsake not the assembling of themselves to- 
 gether for purposes congenial to the hallowed sea- 
 Bon. 
 
 D "wn in yonder shad id nook, where the broad
 
 .N THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 41 
 
 chestnut spreads his venerable branches, and forms a 
 graceful canopy, an open shed stands, lightly thatch- 
 ed, and forming a shelter, in the grape season, for 
 f.ome of the operations connected with that branch 
 of agriculture. Here, on seats as rustic and as va- 
 rious as could well be collected together, are placed 
 a number of females of every age, generally, though 
 not exclusively, of humble station, who wait in so- 
 ber silence, or in pleasant converse on holy subjects, 
 the completion of their party. Men, youths, and 
 boys are scattered about ; some seated on the ground, 
 some leaning against the light pillars of the shed, 
 others pacing the green sward, in quiet, yet anima- 
 ted discourse on the things that belong unto then 
 peace. Our pedestrians take their accustomed sta- 
 tion, and shortly after their arrival, appears the pas-*- 
 tor of the expectant flock. He has no robing-room, 
 no sacristy, to screen his mysterious preparations 
 for the office whereunto the Lord hath called him. 
 Clad in the simplest habiliments of a travelling 
 dealer in miscellaneous wares, with manners as art- 
 less as his apparel is unstudied, and wearing as his 
 only badge of office, that crown of glory which a 
 hoary head found in the way of righteousness con- 
 fers on its possessor, he advances with looks of beam- 
 ing affection, and gives the salutation of " Peace be 
 to you," which every heart and every tongue re- 
 echoes with an application to himself. 
 
 He has been on an embassy, through many leagues 
 of territory, bartering his simple wares, and using 
 4*
 
 42 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 the opportunities thus obtained for speaking the 
 Gospel of the grace of God in many a mansion 
 where such language was never heard before. He 
 has trod the stately halls of the proud chateau, and 
 while his fabric of home-made lace attracted the 
 eye of the courtly dame, he has filled her ear with 
 sounds most strangely new ; even that God so loved 
 the world as to give his own Son, to die for sinners 
 like her ; and that " the blood of Jesus Christ 
 cleanseth from ALL sin ;" and on that mighty " all " 
 he has expatiated, until the pilgrimages and pen- 
 ances, and purgatorial fires of Rome's lucrative fable 
 seemed as, what they are a mocking lie, to cheat 
 the soul of its free and full salvation. Many a sweet 
 tale has the missionary peddler to tell, of " seed sown 
 in desolate places;" and then they all kneel down, 
 and pray to Him that sitteth in the heavens, that He 
 will cause the gentle dew of His spirit to fall, and 
 fertilize the ground, until plants arise, and fruit ap- 
 pear, to His glory. 
 
 After this, songs of praise are sung : confession 
 of sin is made to Him who " willeth not the death 
 of a sinner ;" and many a sob of repentance is turned 
 into the prayer of believing hope, as the sure word 
 of promise is dwelt upon, and its balm applied to 
 the wounded conscience. They strengthen them- 
 selves in the Lord ; they build themselves up on 
 their most holy faith ; and with eager delight they 
 listen to the well-worn manuscript again produced 
 for their edification, where a portion of the inspired
 
 IN TIIE TWELFTH CENTURV. 46 
 
 word was inscribed by the hand of a faithful copier, 
 who found the original document becoming illegi- 
 ble from constant use. This leads to exhoitation, 
 founded on the word ; and again they pray, again 
 they join their voices in a chorus of praise, that the 
 little hills around them seem delighted to adopt, re- 
 echoing it in half-breathed echoes of their own. 
 
 O 
 
 Much is said of the evils among which they dwell ; 
 much of the wolfish character of some who assume 
 the clothing of sheep. Words of warning are 
 spoken to the young ; words of encouragement to 
 all. 
 
 Perchance even in that little congregation some 
 unsuspected traitor might lurk, taking heed to what 
 was said, not for his soul's profit, but for the de- 
 struction of his companions. Some there might 
 also be, as yet sincere in their profession, who would 
 when the storm fell upon them, flee from the shel- 
 tering Rock to rest on a fleshly arm, and perish. 
 But to the Searcher of hearts alone, were the hearts 
 of the little assemblage laid open : only the eye of 
 Omniscience could descry their future path ; and as 
 they separated, to wend in groups, or singly, along 
 the diversified paths of that sunny landscape, they 
 looked as peaceful, and as fearless of approaching 
 harm, as the quiet goats that browsed on the hill- 
 side, and scarcely raised an eye to glance at the ap- 
 proaching wayfarers. 
 
 They passed a stone cr< ss, rudely constructed, 
 perhaps, with its attendant niche for the statue of
 
 44 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 Jie Virgin. No hat was raised, no head or knee 
 was bowed ; no imaginary cross was figured on the 
 breast. What had they lo do with idols, who had 
 been worshipping the living God in the spirit, and 
 in the beauty of holiness '? They passed on, and 
 sought their several hvellings. Scattered over the 
 earth, of which they were the salt, they withstood, 
 in their quiet efficiency, the spreading of corruption, 
 Woe lo the land where such salt hath lost its
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 WE now change the scene. No longer by the 
 mountain-side, or down into the valley, or through 
 green pastures and among clustering vines lies oui 
 secluded path : halls of grandeur, surpassing the 
 ordinary work of man, rich with Parian marble, in- 
 terspersed with ivory and alabaster ; sumptuous 
 hangings, where mouldings of burnished gold peep 
 forth amid the sweeping festoons of purple and 
 crimson ; tapestry, the rarest that could be culled 
 from Saracenic spoils ; and sculpture of unequalled 
 beauty, in every form that art might borrow from 
 creation's wonders, all this, and more than all that 
 modern fancy may body forth from the luxurious 
 shadows of antique magnificence, we shall encoun- 
 ter while pacing the wide saloons, and vaulted cor- 
 ridors, and mounting the broad marble stairs, all 
 studded with the trophies of a prostrate world, in 
 a thousand varied forms of costliness and grace 
 But among them we will not pause ; the foot falls 
 noiselessly now on carpets of delicate texture, a 
 luxury unknowji as y-t in many king's houses; and
 
 46 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 we approach a retired apartment, A'here splendor 
 holds but the second rank, its prominent feature 
 being that of studious comfort and convenience, in 
 their most perfect manifestation. The mellow light 
 falls softly on a spacious board formed of some 
 precious wood, and covered with purple cloth, of 
 which the golden fringe nearly sweeps the ground ; 
 and this is piled with manuscripts, and documents 
 of various bulk, from the thick volume of Roman 
 and of Grecian lore, to the familiar letter, and its 
 half-completed ~eply now thrown aside for more im- 
 portant avocation. 
 
 And who is he, the presiding spirit of the stu- 
 dious, solitary sct-ne ? There is that in it and in 
 him which bespeaks him lord of the palace through 
 which we have trod ; master of the mighty accu- 
 mulation of wealth, and luxury, and voluptuous 
 gratifications. The guards who, in gorgeous at- 
 tire, passed and repassed before the stately portals 
 of this royal abode, were surely guarding him : the 
 throng of officials hovering about us as we came 
 along, were doing his will and waiting his com- 
 mands : the singing-men and singing-women, whose 
 melodious voices we heard in rehearsal of their eve- 
 ning's task, were preparing strains of harmony to 
 delight his ear : the glittering preparations of a ban- 
 quet fitted for an assemblage of eastern monarchs, 
 were surely made that he might feast, while the 
 tabret, and the viol, and the song, heightened the 
 sensual allurement* of the hour. There is nelhing
 
 ANTICHRIST. 47 
 
 hat the lust of the flesh can crave, nothing to sati- 
 ate the lust of the eye, nothing that the haughtiest 
 pride of living man may grasp to elevate him on the 
 pinnacle of human greatness, and lap him in the 
 fullest enjoyment of mortal delights, but we have 
 traced it, spread within the beck of this man. Yet 
 his aspect is not that of a reveller ; the line traced 
 on a cheek still fresh with the bloom of young life, 
 has not been imprinted there by the finger of de- 
 bauchery ; the fire of the drunkard is not that which 
 flashes from his dark Italian eye ; and the tonsured 
 head, from which the silken cap is laid aside that 
 the soft breeze from yonder open casement may fan 
 its circle of raven locks, bespeaks a character of 
 elevated tone, deep thought, expansive intellect, 
 and a resolve that mocks the idle dream of opposi- 
 tion. 
 
 That man is Lotharius, Count de Signi, and his 
 ideed is all that we have described and surmised, 
 'his haughty palace, with all its magnificence is his; 
 ind at his command, every gratification that sense 
 jan crave is ready to surround him. But such is not 
 his choice ; he aims at a wider mark, and will seize 
 a, mightier prey. 
 
 Rudely sketched on a skin of vellum, according 
 to the imperfect knowledge of those days, there lies 
 beside him a chart of the world : and he will not 
 pause, nr slack his hand, while throughout its 
 boundaries there exists a state unconscious of hia 
 po wer, or diiring to raise an obstacle in the path of
 
 48 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 his supreme will. Mark him, as with sternly placid 
 brow he bends over the paper spread before him, 
 and engrosses with steady energy the customary 
 commencement of a fulmination, at sight of which 
 some monarch shall quake upon his throne, " INNO- 
 CENT, servant of the servants of God." Few months 
 have passed since the triple tiara was placed upon 
 his head, and the forged keys committed to his reso- 
 lute grasp ; and already has he caused it to be felt 
 throughout Europe, that a master's hand has seized 
 the reins of spiritual dominion, with full purpose of 
 adding thereto the utmost stretch of temporal des- 
 potism. He is preparing for a vast campaign ; his 
 battle-field is the wide earth ; and knowing that by 
 the salt of the earth alone can the universal corrup- 
 tion that he purposes to establish be resisted ; his 
 preliminary work must be to remove that salt : his 
 opening war is a " War with the Saints." 
 
 Look again ; view him by the light of Holy Writ, 
 and the pleasant beam of day will fade upon your 
 eye, and the terrible fire of God's wrath will be seen 
 to wrap him round, as a cloak ; as the garment with 
 which he is girded. You see before you the Man 
 of Sin. the Son of Perdition, engaged in his fore- 
 shown work of opposing and exalting himself: one 
 whose coming is after the working of Satan ; and 
 whose office it is by all means to extinguish the light 
 that is hated by th: prince of darkness. In himself, 
 a weak, a dying man, how terrible, how " strong nx 
 ceedingly," he becomes, invested with the power,
 
 ANTICHRIST. 49 
 
 and enthroned as the vicegerent of tne god of this 
 world ! He has passed from among the crowd of 
 common rebels to assume that fearful headship that 
 maintains a succession of men, as it were one man, 
 in that place where the dragon hath given him " his 
 power, and seat, and great authority." He holds 
 them now ; beneath him, and around him, swell the 
 seven hills of " that great city which ruleth over the 
 kings of the earth." The very demons to whom the 
 Pagans of ancient Rome burnt incense and 1 sacrificed, 
 are there upon their pedestals ; their titles only be- 
 ing changed, to those of the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 his apostles, and the lowly virgin of whose mortal 
 substance his human body Avas made ; while an 
 honor no less idolatrous is still rendered to the 
 senseless blocks. There, where the river of mystic 
 Babylon, the Tiber, rolls sluggishly along, the cap- 
 tives of Judah sit and weep, in sorrow that the 
 lapse of nearly twelve centuries has not mitigated, 
 but rather increased ; for the sword of papal Rome 
 is keener, and her scourge more knotted, than when 
 the sanguinary heathen wielded them over the ex- 
 iled and afflicted people of the Lord. Neither in 
 name nor in nature, is Rome changed : the wolf's 
 milk seems yet to sustain the savage principle 
 within ; and the stain of fratricidal blood that moist- 
 ened her first foundations, yet stands, indelible as 
 the mark of Cain, perpetually renewed upon hef 
 orow. 
 
 But this man, this Innocent, what is he about f 
 5
 
 50 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 Enthroned as the deputed minister of Satan, but 
 blasphemously assuming to be the representative of 
 Christ, he is about exercising the power of the Evil 
 One under the name of the Most Holy One. He 
 has glanced over the rough chart beside him, and 
 revolved in his penetrating, comprehensive mind, 
 the internal affairs of each several kingdom ; and he 
 perceives that, to carry out his ambitious designs, 
 he must unite the various sovereigns in some gen- 
 eral object, which, while in itself calculated to min- 
 ister to his ambitious purposes, shall also divert 
 their attention and withdraw their military force, if 
 not their personal superintendence also, from their 
 respective territories. The destined theatre of this 
 simultaneous movement is Palestine whitened as 
 its strickened plains and desolate mountains are with 
 the bones of former victims, immolated in the insane 
 crusades. Insane indeed they were, as regards their 
 ostensible object, held as real by the dupes who un- 
 dertook them ; but deeply politic as planned by those 
 who, while stirring up the minds of their unconscious 
 tools to the seemingly pious enterprise of rescuing 
 the holy city from its paynim lords, really aimed at 
 the triumphant establishment of Rome's supremacy 
 throughout the East, on the wrecks of the Grecian 
 Empire. 
 
 But to this man of sin, and of iniquitous mystery, 
 it would seem a small matter to arm another cru- 
 sade, however extensive and powerful, if, while the 
 princes gf Europe were employed, at the head of
 
 ANTICHRIST. 51 
 
 their armaments, in extending the empire of the 
 mighty lie abroad, truth should continue to make 
 its quiet way among the homesteads of their several 
 domains. Innocent III. was not the man to over- 
 look the infancy of aught that might grow to a dan- 
 gerous form, if left to mature itself; he knew that a 
 single copy of the word of God, privately circulated 
 in a rural district, might shake the pillars of his 
 throne, and grind his gigantic power into dust. He 
 therefore determined that the first crusade under- 
 taken by his command, should be by each prince 
 against his own subjects, wheresoever the faintest 
 glimmering of a true faith had been detected through- 
 out his realms of darkness. Already had the flames 
 of martyrdom begun to light the sky, in places 
 where the number of suspected believers was very 
 small, and where they were easily marked out, and 
 arraigned on false charges, and put to death with- 
 out exciting either compassion or resentment in the 
 blinded multitudes around them. The German em- 
 peror had also placed in his hands an edict for the 
 destruction of those among his subjects in Italy, 
 who, under the name of Paterini, or Gazari, were 
 distinguished as dissenting in many points from the 
 creed of Rome ; and where, as in some instances it 
 occurred, the lords who ruled in the provinces 
 showed a disposition to protect this class of their 
 subjects, whom they had ever found the most 
 peaceful, loyal, and industrious, the crafty pontiff 
 neutralized their opposition by tempting their ava-
 
 52 ANTICHEIST. 
 
 rice on the one hand, and on the other exciting 
 their fears. He consigned to them, as a legal for- 
 feiture, the entire possessions of all whom they should 
 destroy as heretics ; and he denounced against them 
 the penalty of excommunication in the event of their 
 favoring the escape of a suspected schismatic. Where 
 the bribe might have failed, the menace triumphed ; 
 for, howsoever lightly some of the barons might have 
 regarded the papal malediction in its sphitual char- 
 acter, they well knew that its promulgation would 
 authorize and ev.m enjoin every neighboring lord to 
 invade and depose, every vassal under their rule 
 to waylay and assassinate them. 
 
 So far successful, within the first year of Ins pon- 
 tificate, has the man now before us been ; and the 
 augury of future triumph sits upon his brow. 
 "Innocent, servant of the servants of God " is pre- 
 paring credentials for his chosen emissaries, now 
 about to depart for the province of Narbonne, which 
 has occasioned him some anxiety since the report of 
 numerous spies confirmed his suspicion that, the 
 truth had taken strong and deep root in that prov- 
 ince, and he has matured his plan for destroying it. 
 In that document, lengthening under his rapid pen- 
 manship, you might read the commission to be con. 
 ferred on his two delegates, the powers with which 
 he prepares to arm them ; the germ, in fact, of that 
 terrible after-growth, the Inquisition, of which he i 
 to be the actual author: and as he pauses for the ink 
 to dry up n its surface, he spares another momen-
 
 ANTICHRIST. 53 
 
 tary glance to the world's outline, whereon his bound- 
 less lust of aggrandizement delights to expatiate; 
 where he thinks to change times and laws ; where he 
 will depose and create err pcrors, and play with regal 
 crowns as with nursery toys. The East he will 
 overrun and grasp it yet: the Germanic Empire 
 shall own no head but of his selecting : that little 
 speck, denoting England, he will curb its restless 
 spirit of independence, and render its trophied 
 crown a football for his legate. France, Spain, 
 Hungary, the whole circle of surrounding dominions, 
 shall be as a nest of unfledged eagles, upon which 
 the dark shadow of his vulture-power shall rest, 
 until he can say of the terrified inmates, " There 
 was none that peeped, nor moved the wing, nor mut- 
 tered." 
 
 Strange that a mortal man should possess, and 
 have permission to exercise, a power so vast and so 
 destructive ! It would appear yet more strange to us, 
 if we held not in our hands the solution of the mys- 
 tery ; his coming is after the working of Satan ; and 
 his is " the power, the seat, and the great author- 
 ity," held for the moment by that selected vicege- 
 rent. -We must recall the scene of conflict, when 
 our holy Lord Jesus was led of the Spirit into the 
 wilderness to be tempted of the Devil, and remem- 
 ber the magnificent bribe that was set before Him : 
 " All the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of 
 them," which were certainly, in a degree to us inex- 
 plicable, at the disposal of the Evil One, "the piince 
 5*
 
 54 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 of this world," as our Lord himself designated him' 
 and still retaining such a mighty power and influence, 
 even after the triumphant resurrection and ascension 
 of his Conqueror, that the apostle could style him 
 "the gid of this world," and represent him as taking 
 captive at his will such as fell into his snares. 
 While, therefore, we contemplate the individual who, 
 as in the very wantonness of mockery, chose the 
 official appellation of " Innocent," in which to blaxon 
 forth his sanguinary guilt, let us remember that we 
 look upon an incarnation of Satan himself; one into 
 whom, as into Judas of old, the evil spirit had en- 
 tered, stimulating weak mortality to the almost un- 
 imaginable supremacy in crime, that could find in 
 the Creator and Redeem; r of the world, an object of 
 barter and sale. We are not to inquire, what could 
 Lotharius de Signi achieve ? but what could the 
 fallen archangel accomplish, when working in and 
 by a rare combination of those physical and intel- 
 lectual capacities which were originally fashioned in 
 divine perfection, to show forth the glory and the 
 majesty of Him in whose image man was created j 
 and which still, in the wreck that sin has reduced 
 them to, bear splendid marks of what they once 
 have been? What must that be in the fierceness 
 and pride of its unresisted power, over which in its 
 destined fall all heaven is summoned to rejoice ! 
 
 There is an awful and a terrible interest in the 
 scene it can scarcely be called an imaginary one- 
 where we seem to linger. The gorgeousness of the
 
 ANTICHRIST. 5ft 
 
 palace, he features of boundless voluptuousness 
 that every v hero prevail, save in the aspect of its 
 present lord, whose soul is surrendered to the rule 
 of sterner passions ; the utter absence of all that 
 might be construed into a semblance of pure and 
 undefiled religion ; the proud, glaring, gaudy con- 
 trast to the subdued, unworldly spirit of the doctrine 
 taught by Him who was meek and lowly of heart, 
 and by the simple, unlearned men whom He com- 
 missioned to make known to all the world the great 
 mystery of godliness : these things would strike the 
 mind as remarkable, even were Rome still pagan in 
 name, and the idols that she worships invoked by 
 their original names of Jupiter, Mars, Bacchus, 
 Venus, and the other obscene characters of a foul 
 mythology. But this is not so : the pride, the sen- 
 suality, the sloth, the unbounded wickedness that 
 surround us, are exhibited to the world as the ad- 
 juncts of Christianity ; yea, to such an extent, that 
 to question the Divine authority here assumed, to 
 doubt whether the remorseless homicide before us is 
 indeed the chosen and anointed delegate of Christ, 
 exercising the fulness of His power, and being head 
 over all things to His body the Church, is "heresy," 
 punishable with a cruel death. Perchance some 
 wasted form may cross our path, some poor con- 
 science-stricken sinner, who tries to overcome the 
 tremblings occasioned by a fearful looking-for of 
 judgment and fiery indignation that awaits the trans- 
 gressor, by fastings and penances, and vigils that
 
 Ob ANTICHRIST. 
 
 have dwindled his body to a shadow, but can bring 
 no ray of peace or hope to his despairing mind : yet 
 still he toils on, in the weary path, and beholds a 
 distant refuge in the promised absolution of this 
 pretender to heavenly powers. Alas! the victim is 
 perishing with a lie in his right hand. 
 
 The task is done : the pontiff rapidly skims over 
 it, and, resuming his cap, arranging his robe, and 
 gathering about him a dignity needful for the occa- 
 sion, gives a summons that is speedily obeyed by 
 the entrance of two ecclesiastics, who, with the low- 
 liest reverence that man can pay to a superior being, 
 approach within some paces of their brother of the 
 dust ; and there they stand, with heads bowed down 
 while the pontifical blessing is pronounced with that 
 impressiveness which a master mind will impart to 
 the action, albeit the spirit may have no part there- 
 in. After a pause, he bids them be seated ; and 
 conscious of their value in his eyes, as chosen emis- 
 saries in a somewhat difficult field of labor, they lay 
 aside the embarrassing sense of a presumed unap- 
 proachable distance, which probably they do not 
 feel, and listen while Innocent breathes forth the 
 paternal sorrows of his heart, over the wrongs in- 
 flicted on their holy religion by heretics who corrupt 
 the faith, and draw others aside from the right way. 
 In all his pious affliction, brother Guy, and brother 
 Regnier sympathize, declaring with what eagerness 
 they have obeyed his mandate, leaving the cloistered 
 solitudes of Citeaux, and all the peaceful privilege!
 
 ANTICHRIST* 51 
 
 of monkish lite, to do his bidding as good sol- 
 diers of the cross, m the unsettled province of Nar- 
 bonne. 
 
 Then follow their instructions ; and marvellous it 
 fe, how soon the tones of pious lamentation strength- 
 ex: and deepen into those of most energetic com- 
 mand. The pontiff shows himself intimately ac- 
 quainted with the nature and the seat of the malady, 
 and most unflinchingly decided as to the mode of 
 care. They are to traverse the infected districts, 
 and by every means that power, craft, wealth, and 
 skill can supply, to discover the holders of hereti- 
 cal doctrines. They are to establish tribunals, the 
 most irresponsibly despotic that can be devised, be- 
 fore which the accused must be arraigned ; and to 
 carry out to the full whatever sentence is considered 
 advisable, they are invested with the plenitude of 
 authority enjoyed by the holy see an authority 
 that vaunts to inclose within its grasp not only 
 earth, but heaven and hell. No appeal is left : from 
 their decisions appeal is not permitted ; and on their 
 part, no appeal is required. Confiscation, imprison- 
 ment, torture, exile, and the stake are in their hands, 
 to wield against men's bodies ; and at the voice of 
 their excommunicating curse, the pit of perdition is 
 to unfold its jaws, and swallow up the condemned 
 soul. They are, moreover, to preach vehemently, 
 stirring up the rage of all true Christians agains* 
 their neighbors, and publicly to entangle in the subt- 
 leties of log'cal disputation such as may venture t*
 
 59 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 avow the i opinions. They are o convict them, if 
 possible, of direct opposition to the mind and will 
 of the Church ; and to seize the moment of such 
 public exposure to exasperate against them the more 
 consistent upholders of that dreaded authority. 
 Many admonitions and suggestions, full of the wis- 
 dom that cometh not from above, but which in its 
 earthly, sensual, devilish subtlety, frequently over- 
 reaches and confounds the children of light, does 
 the pontifical instructor bestow on his eager listen- 
 ers ; who, with years and experience much beyond 
 his own, and with a full measure of learning and 
 talent, are far behind him in intellectual power, and 
 still further in that unshrinking spirit of fearless de- 
 termination that will openly and unwaveringly pur- 
 sue its one defined object, though the thrones of 
 monarchs, and the bodies and souls too of their 
 countless subjects, must be crushed under his ad- 
 vancing tread. A noble model for two aspiring 
 monks to study ! a bright example of the faith which 
 he is inciting them to maintain, and to establish by 
 espionage and dissimulation ; by lying sophistry and 
 suborned evidence ; by the fetter, the dungeon, the 
 rack, and the flame. 
 
 Nothing is left unsaid, to prepare them for this 
 work ; they are encouraged to propose questions, in 
 matters of imaginary difficulty possible to occur, 
 that he may solve them ; and to exhibit in their 
 most formidable aspect all supposable obstacles-!, 
 that he may instruct them, not only how to conquei
 
 ANTtCttRtST, ftO 
 
 but how to turn them all to advantage. Never was 
 counsel more eagerly taken against the poor scat- 
 tered flock of the Lord's pasture, than while those 
 three men arrar.ged the cautious opening of a cam- 
 paign, that was to issue in exterminating warfare ; 
 and they leave at length that august presence, so 
 replete with thoughts, and schemes, and auguries of 
 triumph, that while they slowly retrace, side by side 
 the stately approaches to the scene of audience, 
 scarcely are they tempted to cast a wandering glance 
 on the marvels that surround them; their cowled 
 brows being bent still lower to smother the whis- 
 pered tones that mutually recount the heads of their 
 instructions, or prophecy of the probable events of 
 that long vista of dominion which the natural turn 
 of man's life opens to the vigorous mind and robust 
 constitution of Lothnrius de Signi. Perchance each 
 secretly carves out for himself a sway if less exten- 
 sive, equally despotic, over the provinces to which 
 they are now to repair; and, perchance, it is sug- 
 gested to their ambitious minds, that one of them 
 may yet live to snatch the powerful keys that hands 
 not less nervous than those recently uplifted to bless 
 them, have oft let fall under the operation of some 
 deadly draught. For, what other imerdon has the 
 
 > O O 
 
 apostate Church to offer to her unscrupulous offi- 
 cials, than the attainment of honors, and wealth, 
 and lordly sway, among the kingdoms of this world ? 
 Arriving at the outer portal of the Vatican, we 
 can hut look back upon its walls, and say, that, upon
 
 dO A-NT-lCHftlS?. 
 
 earth, Satan never prevailed to frame so mighty a 
 laboratory of sin. The perfection of its machinery 
 is wonderful, even under the presiding influence of 
 spirits far inferior to that of Innocent III. In the 
 stupendous forgery there perpetually carried on, 
 every line and character of God's truth is parodied 
 with wonderful skill, that, the original destroyed, men 
 may receive the base fabrication, and believe, not to 
 the saving, but to the destruction of their sou.s. Its 
 devices are best seen in their public development : 
 and narrative, not declamation, must show them 
 forth : but of the pontiff in his closet, and of those 
 monks now winding their course through the streets 
 of the great city, and of the multitudes for whose 
 slaughtering career they go to prepare the way, we 
 can say, " These shall make war upon the Lamb, 
 and the Lamb shall overcome them ; for He is the 
 King of kings, and Lord of lords ; and they that are 
 with Him" even the poor harmless helpless ones 
 whom these go forth to destroy" are called, and 
 chosen, and faithful." 
 
 Gladly we turn from the pomp and pride of the 
 splendid city, on whose tall towers and columns of 
 ancient fame, and gigantic ruins of an empire less 
 mighty than that which, under a far different char- 
 acter, yet almost identically the same in principle 
 and in practice, has succeeded it, to explore again 
 the scene of future persecution, still wrapped in the 
 repose of presumed independence and short-lived 
 peace. The banners that float on the battlements
 
 ANTICHRIST. 61 
 
 of thai princely abode are fanned by thj Pyrennean 
 breezes ; and the hands that planted them there are 
 lerved to defend them, as the ensigns of a freedom 
 the value of which is deeply felt, even when its full 
 extent is not rightly understood : they are guarded 
 oy those who have learned to think for themselves ; 
 and who, for the bare assumption of such unautho- 
 rized privilege, are already, though secretly, con- 
 demned as unpardonable rebels against the supre- 
 macy of Rome. 
 
 Wheresoever the Lord plants a vineyard, there 
 he also builds him a watch-tower. Sometimes a 
 diligent and faithful watchman is placed there, who 
 holds his post as a most sacred trust, for every par- 
 ticular of which he must deliver in a full detail to 
 the eternal King; and so he watches as one who 
 must give account, that he may be able to do it with 
 joy, and not with grief. Thus a God-fearing mon- 
 arch, as David, Josiah, Hezekiah, will rule his king- 
 dom ; thus a subordinate prince, his more confined 
 possessions ; thus a devout landholder his patri- 
 monial domain ; and a householder his family. We 
 speak not here of a spiritual surveillance ; not of 
 the vine-dresser or the grape-gatherer ; but of that 
 secular keeping which the ordinary course of this 
 world renders necessary for the preservation of land- 
 marks, and the repulse of foreign assailants, whoso 
 object it might be to rend and to trample down the 
 precious, but weak and fragile plants that constitute 
 Jit vineyard. 
 
 G
 
 62 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 Sometimes, however, that which to man's eye ap- 
 pears the appointed watch-tower, is none other than 
 & lodging for wayfaring men, who come and go, in 
 pursuit of their own ends, having no more care or 
 thought for the security of the vineyard than their 
 temporary approximation begets in selfish minds. 
 If they stretch out a protecting hand on its behalf, 
 it is only because the wild boar who comes to tram- 
 ple it down, might, if unresisted, turn his formida- 
 ble tusks upon themselves, and become exceedingly 
 dangerous to them Or, at least, a feeling of local 
 attachment, of admiration for its beauty, apprecia- 
 tion of its value, and innate love of justice, may arm 
 their hands in that defence on which they cannot 
 but admit it has a claim. But the higher motive is 
 altogether wanting : their guidance to the spot in 
 danger's hour is indeed providential, like all other 
 things that affect the welfare of the Lord's Church ; 
 but they hold no recognized commission, they look 
 forward to no searching investigation of their pro- 
 ceedings ; and unhappy is he who leans upon them 
 in the hour of calamity. 
 
 In such cases, then, where is the true watchman 
 to be found ? Only the eye of faith can discern him ; 
 only the ear of faith can hear his encouraging voice, 
 saying, " The Lord himself is thy keeper : the Lord 
 is thy defence upon thy right hand." 
 
 Xo vineyard was there, perhaps, so extensive, so 
 Nourishing, so conspicuously visible, as in the prov- 
 ince of Toulouse ; and strange it would have sounded
 
 ANTICHRIST. 63 
 
 in many ears to have denied to that stately castle (he 
 appellation of a watch-tower, or to Count Raymond 
 the title of a bold, a faithful watchman over the 
 plants so collected and so trained up within the 
 broad bounds of his ancient sovereignty. A sov- 
 ereign prince indeed he was, a man of war from his 
 youth, asserting and. maintaining a lofty independ- 
 ence, neither to be controlled by the monarch whc 
 received his nominal homage, nor by the neigh- 
 boring princes, who sought by frequent disputes, 
 and many hostile attempts, to humble his pride, 
 or to set narrower limits to his power. The former 
 remained unbent, the latter received continual ac- 
 cessions of strength ; for he gathered around him its 
 various elements, and nourished in the congenial at- 
 mosphere. The stately halls of Raymond's castle 
 echoed to the lays of the troubadours ; his revels, 
 divested of the coarser features of a barbarous <ige, 
 assembled together the fairest of one sex, and the 
 boldest of the other ; while the peculiar refinement, 
 and diffusion of that comparative light which science 
 sheds, so distinctive of the Provencal society, fos- 
 tered in every bosom a species of vain-glory highly 
 conducive to the popularity of the chief undei 
 whose auspices they flourished. To recruit his mil- 
 itary forces, he retained in his pay a considerable 
 body of Routiers, an organized banditti, in fact, frcm 
 the northern parts of Spain, whose habits of plun- 
 der he carefully restrained, so far as the general 
 population of the province was concerned, but left
 
 64 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 them more at large among the ecclesiastics ; the 
 most despised order of men. Churches were forci- 
 bly entered, to be despoiled of their gold, and sil- 
 ver, and precious stones ; their rich vestments, and 
 costly draperies : and many a friar found himself 
 unexpectedly brought within the letter of his vow 
 of poverty, through the marauding exploits of those 
 desperate gangs, who held all religion in supreme 
 contempt: lut none sympathized with the sufferers ; 
 they stood as far beyond the pale of Proyencal re- 
 finement on the one hand, as on the other beyond 
 that of scriptural verity. Raymond upheld his in- 
 fluence, even over the mercenary Rentiers, at the 
 bast possible expense to his popularity in other 
 quarters. He dreamed not that the very order on 
 which he most disdainfully pressed his heel, was that 
 which should ere long arise and crush him. Alas 
 for him who ventures to tread among scorpions, 
 without having his feet first shod with the prepara- 
 tion of the Gospel of peace ! 
 
 The dominion of Count Raymond extended over 
 the greater part of the territory already specified, 
 the respective lords owning to him a fealty that his 
 prowess compelled them to acknowledge, and, on 
 most occasions, heartily uniting with him in the re- 
 pulsion of any superior claimant. Like him, they 
 despised the lazy, useless, and ignorant order of ec- 
 clesiastics ; like him they tolerated, ?.nd many of 
 them opo :ily fostered, .the purer faith held by the 
 scattered j eople of God. But Toulouse, the im
 
 ANTICHRIST. 65 
 
 mediate province so called, was where tl ese protest- 
 ers especially basked in the sunshine of patronage! 
 and the city itself was considered not less their head- 
 quarters than it was the seat of Raymond's govern- 
 ment. Fulcrand, Bishop of the place, made an ef- 
 fort to uphold the sinking credit of his order, but in 
 vain the very year before Innocent III. assumed 
 the tiara, an indignant historian describes the low 
 ebb to which ecclesiastical power had fallen, in these 
 terms: "The temples were deserted; the altar 
 itself wanted ministers ; and the Church, not find- 
 ing subjects sufficient to consecrate, was compelled 
 to have recourse to orders of men destitute of tiie 
 proper qualifications, who, by their ignorance and 
 corruption aided the heretics to accomplish the de- 
 struction of that authority with which the Catholic 
 religion had been for twelve centuries invested." 
 So rapidly was the man of sin, in those regions, con- 
 sumed with the breath of the Lord's mouth, that 
 there scarcely remained a tangible substance of the 
 body which is finally to be destroyed by the bright- 
 ness of his coming. But the set time had not yet 
 arrived ; and this, like many other of his deadly 
 wounds, was to be healed again. 
 
 Among the many classes who thronged Count 
 Raymond's presence-chamber, on a day of public au- 
 dience, there was not one in which a strong taint of 
 what Rome calls heresy might not be detected. 
 The feudal lords, his equal guests, who surrounded 
 his chair of state, or leaned upon his arm as he 
 6*
 
 60 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 slowly paced the marble floor, were frequently 
 known, not only as the protectors, but as the open 
 patrons of avowed Albigenses, from among whom 
 they selected their counsellors and bosom friends. 
 Some of them had nobly braved the fearful menace 
 of excommunication, often paraded but as yet not 
 actually fulminated against them as enemies to the 
 faith: others, while making a show of compliance, 
 and ostensibly preparing to seize the persons and ef- 
 fects of the accused, had secretly warned them of 
 their danger, pointed out a more secure place of 
 abode, and supplied the means of immediate removal. 
 The military commanders, through all gradations of 
 rank, partook in this feeling ; for, where their own 
 minds were wholly unimpressed with the majestic 
 reality of truth, as embodied in the creed of their 
 Albigensic troops, their eyes could not be utterly 
 closed to the beauty of holiness, as displayed in those 
 men's daily walk. The living and moving principle 
 within might be veiled from their careless, carnal 
 sight ; but the fruits of the Spirit were as manifest in 
 them as were the works of the flesh in others ; and 
 good order, fidelity, sobriety, punctuality, with calm, 
 unflinching courage, were too well appreciated by 
 those who held command over them, to fail of ex- 
 citing a warm and generous sympathy, even if it 
 wx)n them not to investigate the origin of such con- 
 sistent effects. In this class, which in those warlike 
 days frequently comprised all the males of a prov- 
 ince, between boyhood and old age, there were also
 
 ANTICHRIST. 67 
 
 wh) availed themselves of the sanction 
 oi their truly Christian comrades' example for neg- 
 recting the outward services of the nominal Church ; 
 and in so doing set themselves free from all restraint, 
 remaining utterly destitute of any religion, having 
 rejected the false without inquiring after the true 
 faith ; and thus, while incurring the brand of heresy, 
 they attached by their loose living, the stigma of 
 gross licentiousness to that in which they had nei- 
 ther part nor lot. 
 
 The substantial burgess, the humbler tradesman, 
 the artisan and the peasant, must all have pleaded 
 guilty to the charge of harboring within the circle of 
 his daily companionship, if not in his own home, or 
 in his own bosom, a portion of the pervading leaven. 
 Among the three last it was, perhaps, chiefly to be 
 sought for in its purity and lustre. Examples there 
 were, in every rank, of an elevated Christian walk 
 and conversation, compared with the prevalent char- 
 acter of the times, and the degraded state of nominal 
 religion ; and the noble army of martyrs had its 
 ranks thickly repfenished from the luxurious palace, 
 from the hall of study, from the comfortable home- 
 stead of the thriving gentleman, and other places 
 where the noble, the wise, and the mighty were 
 callod, and justified, and glorified ; but the poor in 
 this world were those among whom the riches of 
 faith chiefly abounded ; and from whom God chiefly 
 chose the heirs of the kingdom of heaven. These 
 ofien approached Count Raymond with their re-
 
 H8 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 spectful statements of grievances, for the redress of 
 which they knew that he was appointed, and with 
 petition;?, that he was equally able and willing to 
 grant. Nor could the railing accusations that some 
 indignant ecclesiastic might pour forth against the 
 suppliant, as a notorious despiser of his gods and 
 goddesses, turn the current of justice in its even 
 course. The contrary was indeed often evident ; a 
 bias was given in favor of the denounced heretic by 
 the very denunciation that sought to crush him ; 
 and again, we must repeat, that, to the eye of man, 
 the proud turrets of Toulouse's regal castle would 
 appear to have belonged to a true watch-tower, 
 most effectually manned for the defence of the 
 Lord's vineyard. 
 
 But he whose coming is after the power of Satan, 
 had never yet put forth that terrible power against 
 the weak defences thus established. Man might 
 grapple with the strength of man, and deride his 
 threats, and maintain a disputed possession in tri- 
 umphant security ; but when the wrestling hereto- 
 fore sustained against flesh and blood alone, be- 
 comes a grapple with the unseen host of principali- 
 ties and powers : when the rulers of the darkness of 
 this world overshadow the field with their ominous 
 presence, and wicked spirits in high places assume 
 the conduct of the fray, nothing but the armor, the 
 \vhole armor of God, can enable an opponent to 
 stand : only the girdle of truth, the breasrp'ate of 
 v ighteousness, the sandals of peace, the shield of
 
 ANTICHRIST. fi9 
 
 faith the helmet of salvation, the sword of the word, 
 all kept bright and serviceable by unceasing prayer, 
 can furnish a warrior for that day's battle. 
 
 Where now is Count Raymond, where his feudal 
 peers, and veteran knights of crusading renown ? 
 They have vanished from the scene like smoke : the 
 arm of flesh has withered, and is gone. Their pres- 
 ence may be as palpable, and their array as glitter- 
 ing, and their front as bold as it Avas erewhile, be- 
 neath the vaulted roof of that castellated palace, 
 which has lost none of its solidity, nothing of its im- 
 pregnable aspect : but as a watch-tower for the de- 
 fence of the Lord's vineyard, it is nothing; and 
 they, as guardians, are less than nothing. The will 
 remains, but the power that alone could now sustain 
 that will in effectual operation is wanting, because 
 it has never been sought. History, in all its ample 
 pages, does not contain a more instructive lesson of 
 the helplessness of man, than is furnished by the 
 memorial of Raymond VI., the powerful Count of 
 Toulouse. 
 
 It is customary to represent this chieftain as a 
 man of doubtful courage, of weak mind, and waver- 
 ing resolution ; but no warrant exists for so regard- 
 ing him. Raymond was an intrepid warrior, an un- 
 daunted upholder of his rights and possessions, his 
 partly by inheritance, partly by conquest, and the 
 rest in virtue of four marriages. His union with 
 the ,ister of our own royal fanatic, the lion-h .arted 
 Richard, ti insferred to him some of England's pos-
 
 70 
 
 sessions in France ; and his last alliance Was ,1 most 
 politic one: just at the period when Innocent made 
 vehement appeals to the French king, on behalf of 
 the nominal Church, and when Raymond was nee* 
 essarily present to the minds of both these poten* 
 tates, as the principal offender, whom they must 
 unite to destroy, the count married the sister of 
 the king of Arragon, and so strengthened himself by 
 this alliance as to render his position one of tenfold 
 security. No, Raymond was neither, fearful nof 
 foolish, in the things of this world ; but he lacked 
 the wisdom that cometh from above, and which 
 alone could have armed him to withstand an onset 
 headed by the king of the bottomless pit. 
 
 When Regnier and Guy entered upon their mis- 
 sion, their first destination was Narbonne ; where 
 they prosecuted inquiries, made observations, and 
 framed reports for their master's eye, which fired 
 him to the utmost pitch of zeal for the instant sup- 
 pression of what he now saw to be an antagonist 
 power of formidable growth. Previously to dis- 
 patching them, he had sent other delegates into the 
 infected provinces, with full authority to destroy 
 whatsoever and whosever might be found in the at- 
 titude of opposition to Rome ; and these had com- 
 mitted several cruel murders, publicly burning first 
 a gentleman of consideration, whom they convicted 
 of holding heretical opinions ; and subsequently a 
 number of poor people in the villages where no 
 powerful arm could be uplifted in their defence, and
 
 ANTICHRIST. 71 
 
 frhere terror and consternation paralyzed the simple 
 inhabit in ts. Beyond this, however, no impression 
 was made ; and the result of a close scrutiny on the 
 part of his two inquisitors, only tended to prove 
 how firmly the faith which they sought to destroy 
 had rooted itself. The pope, therefore, proceeded 
 to select three other legates ; Arnaud, abbot of 
 Citeaux, an ambitious, crafty, eloquent, and unscru- 
 pulous man ; Peter de Castelnau, a stern bigot, 
 fierce and unmasked, who openly panted to carry 
 fire and sword alike into palace and hovel, and who 
 could not even restrain the turbulence of his bit- 
 ter spirit when policy demanded it ; and Raoul, a 
 smooth, soft-spoken person, with much of the mod- 
 ern Jesuit about him : but neither the authoritative 
 temper of the first, nor the oily serenity of the last, 
 could obtain ascendency. The impetuous violence 
 of Castelnau bore all before him ; and his premature 
 exhibitions of ferocity retarded the success of their 
 mission, until they ended in his own destruction ; 
 an event that proved more serviceable than his pro- 
 onged life could have done. 
 
 While dispatching these legates, Innocent was 
 not unmindful of another weapon, placed, as he 
 conceived, at his sole command. Philip Augustus, 
 king of France, was the sovereign to whom apper- 
 tained the supreme lordship of Toulouse; and tc 
 him the pope addressed a letter that must not be 
 omitted, exhibiting as it does, at a glance, the char- 
 acter of its writer, and uttering so impressively the
 
 72 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 dragon's roar, from under the horns of the lamb 
 It shows for what purpose, in the papal estimation, 
 kings are appointed ; and displays the fearful hypoc- 
 risy which is yet no real disguise ; the embroidered 
 veil of gossamer-tissue, so lightly thrown back by 
 the mother of harlots, exposing, in all their naked 
 hideousivess, the features of her branded face. Thus 
 runs the letter ; and a splendid composition it is, in 
 its original Latin : 
 
 " Sire, 
 
 "The Lord has established the dignity of pontiff, 
 and that of king, for the preservation of his church. 
 The first to nourish her children, the second to de- 
 fend them. That, to instruct docile souls, this to 
 subdue rebellious spirits. The pontiff must pray 
 for her most cmel enemies, and the king must draw 
 he sword to punish them. If these two powers are 
 agreed, in duly rendering their mutual service, then 
 the secular arm must chastise those whom the 
 church is unable to bring back to their duty. A 
 great monarch bears not the sword in vain ; God 
 has committed it to him for the service of the faith. 
 At the summons of the pontiff, he must hasten 
 wheresoever the faith is menaced. * * * * 
 In virtue of the power with which you are endued 
 from on high, compel therefore, the counts and bar- 
 ons to confiscate the goods of the heretics ; and ex- 
 ercise a goodly severity against such of these lords 
 as refuse to expel them from their own dominions. '
 
 ANTICHRIST. 78 
 
 This stirring appeal to the French king, produced 
 no substantial effect : Philip Augustus was busied 
 in settling and strengthening his newly-recovered 
 possessions, the fruit of some successful wars ; and 
 be did not consider it expedient suddenly to embroil 
 limself with the powerful nobles of Provence, to 
 indulge the ardor of a fiery young pope. He ac- 
 cordingly transmitted empty promises to Rome, and 
 threats no less empty to Toulouse, both of which 
 were estimated at their real value. Innocent was 
 not beguiled ; neither were the troublers of his 
 peace alarmed. 
 
 Meanwhile, the three legates employed themselves 
 diligently in estimating first the state of the ecclesi- 
 astical body, whose degradation was so universally 
 conspicuous. Castelnau transmitted to Rome heavy 
 charges of incapacity, pusillanimity, and other of- 
 fences against the three bishops of Narbonne, Be- 
 ziers, and Toulouse ; all of whom they contrived to 
 displace; and by a characteristic stroke of policy 
 they chose for the vacant chair of Toulouse, a man 
 whose handsome person, joyous manners, liberal 
 mind, and brilliant wit, were especially calculated 
 to attract the refined Provencals. The bait took: 
 Fou'kes soon gathered around him an admiring con- 
 gregation ; the deserted catheral was once more 
 thronged with dt lighted listeners; and by his fasci- 
 nating eloquence, playful sallies of wit, and all the 
 charms of popular oratory, he seemed to have at- 
 tached them permanently to his ministry. He tLen 
 7
 
 74 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 changed his tone, and gradually endeavored to lead 
 them back into the mazes of that sombre supersti- 
 tion from which they had emerged, some into the 
 pure sunshine of the Gospel, others into the dus- 
 zling glitter of human learning and human science ; 
 but all out of palpable darkness into comparative 
 light. The effect was astounding ; the congregation 
 a* once forsook their pastor, and bishop Foulkes 
 was left to descant on the power of the holy see 
 with all its appurtenances, and to recite his legends 
 of saints, long since consigned to oblivion by thos< 
 heretical Toulousians, with few auditors beyond the 
 baffled triumvirate of legates, who thus received a 
 more conclusive proof of the overthrow of papal 
 error than they were prepared to encounter. It so 
 disheartened Castelnau and Raoul, that they ab- 
 ruptly left the place, and were making all speed to 
 Rome, when they met a Spanish b>hop on his re- 
 turn to his diocese, who, after encouraging them in 
 language worthy a better cause, proved his sin- 
 cerity by dismissing his retinue, and on foot, with 
 only one attendant, joining himself to them as a 
 mendicant preacher, in which character he assured 
 them that they, like the apostles of old, must pur- 
 sue their mission if they desired to succeed. We 
 notice the incident chiefly because the bishop of 
 Osma's attendant, who, on this occasion, formed a 
 fourth in the party, was no other than that scourge 
 of the human race, Domin c, the founder of the mur- 
 derous InqiiHtion.
 
 ANTICHRIST. 75 
 
 4 
 
 By such machinery, so arranged, so directed, so 
 promptly set in motion again after a temporary 
 check, was Satan prosecuting his designs against 
 the Lord's people. To make war with the saints, 
 when the time was come for crushing the infant 
 church ; the prince of darkness had found a general 
 every way suited, in Lotharius de Signi ; and see- 
 ing that he had now grasped the appointed viccge- 
 rency of the Dragon, all the powers of hell seem U 
 have been placed at his command for the execution 
 of his dreadful behests. We are too apt to dwell 
 exclusively upon the catastrophe, overlooking the 
 progress of events, the long, wary, wily, skilful 
 drawing of the net around the prey. It is unwise 
 so to do; for how know we that such enemies even, 
 now prowl about our path, and that in such a net it 
 is confidently anticipated that our feet also shall be 
 caught ? Nay, how can we look around us, and 
 mark the signs of the times, and doubt that even 
 so it is ? 
 
 When our Lord Jesus was led up by the Spirit 
 into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil, a 
 mighty panorama was opened to his view, by the 
 magic power of the wicked one, exhibiting at once 
 all the grandeur and the glory and the might of the 
 world's kingdoms : their hoarded wealth,- their vo- 
 luptuous beauty, the crushing force of their impetu- 
 ous chivalry. There were the fascinations of Greece 
 her poesy, her philosophy, her sculjture, and hei
 
 76 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 innumerable blandishments ; there the chariots and 
 horses, and iron legions of Rome, holding the known 
 world in a fetter that none might break. To all 
 these could Satan point, and boldly assert, " All 
 this is mine, and to whomsoever I will, I give it." 
 The assertion was not denied ; on the contrary, if 
 \vas confirmed on numerous subsequent occasions, 
 when the kingship, the godship of the devil over 
 the whole world that lieth in wickedness, was em- 
 phatically recognized. He who wielded this tre- 
 mendous power ; he who occupied the seat of per- 
 mitted rule ; he who had authority to dispose at 
 will of what he vaunted to possess, is denominated 
 in the record of that awful scene " the devil ;" and 
 is addressed by our Lord as " Satan." 
 
 Again, in the Apocalypse we are told of a dragon, 
 whose enmity against the church is deadly, and his 
 incessant aim, her destruction : of this dragon it is 
 expressly said, he is " the Devil and Satan." Rev. 
 xx. 2. 
 
 And again, when a beast is described whose pecu- 
 liar work it is to make war with the saints, and to 
 overcome them, a beast every way identical with 
 papal Rome, it is said, "The Dragon (i. e. the Devil 
 and Satan) gave him his power, and his seat, and 
 great authority." Rev. xiii. 2. 
 
 It is really wonderful that, with 'hese solemn 
 truths of Holy Scripture before their eyes, histori- 
 ans of the past, or politicians of th^ present days 
 ;an deal \vi*h this subje ~t as with any ordinarj
 
 ANTICHRIST. 77 
 
 matter, where na ural causes produce natural effects. 
 The contest between Christianity and Popery is but 
 the predicted continuance of that which in the wil- 
 derness of Judea was held between Christ <jnd Sa- 
 tan. As on the former occasion, so in the latter, 
 we see the craft, the subtlety, and the plausibility 
 of the old serpent brought into action ; until, baffled 
 in these, he withdraws the veil, exhibits his tremen- 
 dous power, and boldly names the price at which 
 he will barter it ; that is, the recognition of his 
 sovereignty by an act that at once rejects the do- 
 minion of the Lord God, and pledges the wretched 
 victim forever to the active service of his infernal 
 master. We do not here pause to enter upon the 
 deeply interesting subject of advantages gained by 
 such compact on the part of the great adversary. 
 He knows his doom ; and during the limited time 
 that intervenes, he has a twofold object to accom- 
 plish : first, to involve in his own crime and pun- 
 ishment as many of God's creatures as he can se- 
 duce ; and secondly, to revenge the deadly wound 
 inflicted on his head by the woman's Seed, by bruis- 
 ing to the uttermost, where he cannot destroy, the 
 lowly members of the body of which the head is 
 Christ. Personally he encountered the Holy One 1 
 was conquered, and fled : by his human agents he 
 persecutes the saints, and maintains against them, 
 oftentimes, an actual war, which he, a disembodied 
 spirit, could not wag'; without the intervention of 
 human instruments, in one sense more powerful
 
 78 ANT1CHR1S7. 
 
 than himself; for batan can only menace or allure , 
 satanic men can ti-rture and destroy the bodies of 
 their fellow-men. The immateriality of the evil 
 spirit would be a bar to the acting out of his dia- 
 bolical desires, had he not succeeded in securing the 
 use of material bodies, capable of outraging in' de- 
 tail the letter of every divine law against which 
 he can himself only maintain a spiritual rebellion. 
 There is an awful magnitude, and yet a more awful 
 reality about these subjects that we too little heed ; 
 almost any branch of ordinary human science draws 
 forth the powers of the mind to investigate, to ana- 
 lyze, and to deduce conclusions, more readily t and 
 to a wider extent than these deep things of God. 
 
 Enthroned in the dragon's seat, and well content 
 to exercise the power and authority thereto belong- 
 ing to the full satisfaction of his invisible prompter, 
 Innocent kept an anxious eye on the scene of coining 
 war. The failure at Toulouse was calculated to ex- 
 asperate him ; and the angry spirit of Peter de Cas- 
 telnau failed not to keep alive the flame of papal 
 indignation. This impatient zealot could not long 
 brook the restraint that Diego's far-seeing policy 
 laid upon his violence ; or the wily deliberation of 
 Dominic's crafty plans ; and he soon broke away 
 from them to essay the powers of his fierce vituper- 
 ation on Count Raymond, to whom he repaired ; in- 
 sulting, menacing, and exasperating the haughty 
 noble, because he refused, at the dictation of the 
 legato, to niter ii to a doubtful compact with the
 
 ANTICHHIST. 79 
 
 surrounded barons on the basis of a, general exter- 
 mination of the subjects whom he was resolved to 
 protect; and finding that his words excited in Ray- 
 mond only scorn and indignation, he proceeded to 
 cxcomm inicate the count ; laying his territories 
 undcT an interdict. This, as the act of a passionate 
 priest, would be lightly regarded ; he therefore ap- 
 pealed to the pope to confirm the sentence, who 
 forthwith wrote in his sternest, iftost withering style 
 to Raymond, and elicited from him a promise that 
 he would proceed to the work of separation and ex- 
 termination, pointed out as the sole price of such 
 mercy as the Romish church assumes to dispense in 
 spiritual matters ; between which and the deadliest 
 vengeance that she has temporal power to inflict, she 
 knows no medium. Raymond, however, made no 
 progress in his reluctant task ; a year passed on, and 
 herfsy flourished as before, notwithstanding some 
 warlike demonstrations against it, in semblance at 
 least on his part. Castelnau, who watched him 
 with the eye of a vulture following the caterer of 
 his destined repast of blood, could not brook his 
 tardy movements ; he sought Raymond out, it Sc. 
 Gilles, where he was engaged on some expedition, 
 and bitterly reproached him, as a hypocrite, a here- 
 tic, a traitor, and whatsoever else might most deeply 
 sting the pride of the regal chieftain ; reiterating, 
 at the close of his harangue, his former excommuni- 
 cation and interdict. On this occasion, Count Ray- 
 mond was so incensed as to utter words of menace
 
 SO ANTICHRIST. 
 
 against the personal safety of the legate ; which he 
 presently recalled. They were, however, spoken , 
 and they sealed his own doom. Castelnau and his 
 companion quitted t 1 e scene of this altercation in 
 great wrath, leaving the count and his military com- 
 panions no less excited. Having shortly afterwards 
 to pass the Rhone, not far from Saint Gilles, they 
 took up their quarters at a village inn, and here 
 they fell in with {^gentleman of Raymond's court, 
 a witness of the legate's outrageous conduct, and 
 sharing in the general resentment excited by it. As 
 the travellers issued from the church where they 
 had all attended morning mass, on the day after 
 their first encounter, the Toulousian engaged Castel- 
 nau in a disputation on the subject of heresy and its 
 due punishment. The fiery zealot on one hand, and 
 on the other a young soldier who had so recently 
 witnessed the insult put upon his prince-ly com- 
 mander, and heard the interdict pronounced which 
 involved m its deadly evil his own homestead, his 
 own kin, and his familiar friends, were not likely to 
 debate the point with temperance. The quarrel 
 ran high between them, and ere they parted, Peter 
 de Castelnau had fallen, a blood-stained corpse, be- 
 neath the poniard of his opponent. 
 
 This occurred in January 1208, ten years after 
 the first mission of Guy and Regnier from the Vati- 
 can. During that period, all possible rr.eans had 
 been used to prepare the way for what Innocent 
 was resolved to acomoHsh. Dissensions had been
 
 ANTICHRIST 81 
 
 sown with lavish hund, throughout the once peace- 
 able and united community : preaching had been 
 resorted to, of ;v very popular style, vehement, cal- 
 culated to attract the notice, and to rouse the pas- 
 sions of the imaginative auditors. All Rome's pre- 
 tensions were anew set forth, sometimes under the 
 guise of deepest sanctity, by men whose wasted 
 forms and poverty-stricken asp'ect, bespoke their 
 voluntary surrender of all fleshly gratifications ; 
 sometimes with the pomp and pride, and overpow- 
 ering arrogance that often dazzle or dismay where 
 they cannot convince the reason. Especially was 
 the craft pursued of purchasing traitors and hiring 
 calumniators, who secretly poisoned the minds of 
 their neighbors against the harmless Christians, 
 who were, moreover, constantly drawn into public 
 disputation, on which their opponents were sure to 
 perplex their simple minds, by sophistry that puz- 
 zled and silenced them, though it left their faith 
 untouched ; and then, all who did not openly avow 
 themselves to be what the Church of Rome de- 
 nounced as heretics, condemned and accursed, were 
 ostentatiously included in the victorious party ; thus 
 insensibly rooting in their hearts a feeling of hostil- 
 ity against their neighbors, and a contempt for the 
 religion which they had learned to reverence, from 
 considering not the arguments that it could ad- 
 vance but the fruit that it perpetually bore before 
 their eyes. 
 
 But the time v as novi come for such an outburst
 
 82 AN CHRIST. 
 
 of despotic violence as better suited the temper of 
 Innocent 111. than this dilator) 7 sapping and mining 
 He had, before the close of the preceding year, ful- 
 minated a string of pontifical bulls, addressed to the 
 king and the principal nobles of France, for the 
 effect of which he anxiously watched ; their purport 
 being to lay the foundation of a war of fanaticism 
 against those whom he represented as being worse 
 than the Saracens ; when tidings of Castelnau's 
 assassination, closely connected, of course, with the 
 angry threats of Raymond, and perpetrated by one 
 who had stood beside the count when he uttered 
 those threats, reached the pontiff in Rome. Every 
 bad, every vengeful, every merciless project, re- 
 ceived at once a mighty impetus, and a very plausi- 
 ble excuse. The brain of Innocent knew no repose, 
 his rapid pen never stayed its flight over the pages 
 that were taught to communicate his own irritated 
 feelings, and the pile so warily heaped up was kindled 
 at once into a blaze ; not of sudden, unpremeditated 
 character, but according to the deep-laid schemes of 
 many years, now brought to maturity by an event 
 the most opportune that could possibly have occur- 
 red, for the party on whom it seemed to fall as a 
 heavy calamity. 
 
 The crusades had long been found a powerful en- 
 gine in the hands of Rome. They extended h< r 
 temporal power ; filled her coffers ; fixed, beyond 
 any other means, the fetter of her spiritual despo- 
 tism; and, what was of primary importance, sup
 
 ANTICHRIST: 33 
 
 plied a safety-valve by which the milituiy prowess 
 and resources of monarchs who might have proved 
 troublesome vassals to the papacy, were directed 
 into a distant region, to serve its ends ; while those 
 kings with their armies had their worst passions 
 perpetually kept alive, their ferocity untamed, their 
 thirst for blood and spoil encouraged, and all in sub- 
 ordination to the fanaticism which it behooved their 
 master to nourish, as their prevailing characteristic. 
 The nobles of Provence had of late been backward 
 in leading their forces to these "holy wars:" the 
 refinement of taste, manners, and feelings, and still 
 more, no doubt, the working of so much good leaven 
 in the mass, had indisposed them for the savage 
 scenes that desolated the f.air land of Palestine ; 
 while their own beautiful country constantly im- 
 proved under the reign of comparative peace, and 
 industry, and the happy influence that a race of resi- 
 dent lords will shed over a territory inhabited by 
 grateful and attached dependents. What a prey 
 was here for the spoiler's eye to rest upon ! How- 
 many powerful incentives moved his relentless spirit 
 to decide its doom ! 
 
 Here was, first, a wealthy land, abounding in the 
 choicest fruits of the earth, and in the acquired 
 treasures that affluent ease had loved to accumulate. 
 Stately mansions, the castle that frowned defiance 
 on hostile arms ; the church of magnificent archi- 
 tecture and of costly endowments ; the palace where 
 luxur} spread her most gorgeous couch ; the wart-
 
 84 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 house heaped with valuable merchandise; the man- 
 ufactory with its abundant productions in every 
 branch of industry within the reach of an ingenious 
 people. The sons of the soil, wel! fitted to enrich 
 by their labor any conqueror who might enslave 
 them, and its lovely daughters, a yet more tempting 
 prey in the eyes of those licentious savages whom 
 Rome delighted to train for her " holy wars," by 
 heaping fuel on every earth-born, every hell-born 
 flame that burnt within them. 
 
 Such was the prize : the incentives were many 
 and strong. That any nation should dare to exist in 
 a state approaching independence was not to be per- 
 mitted ; but when that growing independence might 
 be traced to the avowed prevalence of Gospel light 
 among the people ; when the yoke of superstition 
 sat loosely on their necks, and the thunders of the 
 Church rolled unheeded over their heads, it was in- 
 deed time for the sovereign pontiff to look to it. In 
 this very year, the daring contumacy of John pro- 
 voked the visitation of an interdict under which 
 England groaned for six years ; and the slight re- 
 g;ird paid by the king and nobles of France to Inno- 
 cent's vehement appeals against heresy, urged him 
 yet more to immediate action. He had besides, wit- 
 nessed a falling-off in the ardor of the Eastern cru- 
 saders, which could not be rekindled by any of the 
 arts that had first inspired it. The Saracens had 
 possession of Jerusalem, and were in little danger 
 of being driven thence by the nominal Christians
 
 ANTICHRIST. 85 
 
 These last had found the length of the way, its 
 numberless perils, the formidable power of the ene- 
 my who resisted them, and, above all, perhaps, the 
 exhaustion of such" spoil as the country had once 
 offered to the grasp, more than a sufficient counter- 
 poise to the reversionary guarantee of a place in 
 paradise, which they knew could be purchased at 
 Rome on other and easier terms. Little remained 
 of the original spirit of the crusades, beyond the 
 sanguinary, licentious, plundering dispositions im- 
 planted and increased in the bosoms of the adven- 
 turers: and to give all these free course in a war 
 with the saints of God, was a thought worthy of the 
 vicegerent of Satan. 
 
 Shall we pace again the marble halls of his pal- 
 ace, and enter the apartment of the Man of Sin, 
 where, with ten added years upon his frowning 
 brow, years of ripened power, and pride, and malig- 
 nity, and hatred against Christ, he sits engaged in 
 the prosecution of what, in the wilderness of Judea, 
 his master began ? He is causing, in his vivid de- 
 scription, the honor, and the glory, and the beauty 
 of tiiose peaceful provinces to pass before the eyes 
 of some who will again and again renew their idol- 
 atrous worship of him in order to grasp them.' He 
 is putting heaven itself up to sale, as. the more 
 seemly prize for him, the pretended head of th: 
 church, to offer for services that are to repay them- 
 selves on the spot by an unlimited appropriation of 
 whatsoever they can wrest from the victim's grasp. 
 8
 
 86 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 He sets forth, in that atrocious document, that tha 
 crime of holding a pure faith, based on the Holy 
 Scriptures, is far greater in the sight of the Most 
 High than those of the most depraved Pagans ; and 
 that the sin of withholding divine honors from them 
 which be no gods, equally exceeds the pollution of 
 holy places, heretofore held out as crying for ven- 
 geance, at the peril of their souls who should fail 
 to punish it. Accordingly, though in point of dis- 
 tance, of danger, of difficulty, such a crusade is not 
 worthy to be named in comparison with the former 
 expeditions, he proffers as high terms to all who 
 shall take the cross against Raymond of Toulouse, for 
 the purpose at once of deposing him, and of exter- 
 minating the people of the Lord sheltered under his 
 protection, as ever were granted to their fathers, 
 when setting forth to expel the Saracens from Pal- 
 estine. To all who engage in the enterprise, he 
 grants full remission of every sin against God and 
 man committed in the course of their lives : to all 
 who shall fall in the conflict he guarantees an im- 
 mediate welcome into the presence and to the throne 
 of God ; while for such as conquer, he has, in addi- 
 tion to these insubstantial prospects, a catalogue of 
 what they may seize and enjoy, sufficient to inflame 
 the coldest heart of sluggish man while he glances 
 over it. To those who, having a military force at 
 their disposal, be they crowned nings or lords of 
 some petty barony, shall hold back from the work, 
 ne speaks only mena( % s that embrace both time and
 
 ANTICHRIST. 87 
 
 eternity. They also shall be given over to the same 
 deadly revenge, as abettors of God's enemies, and 
 traitors to the Church ; and hereafter their portion 
 shall be in the lake of unquenchable fire. True type 
 of the ruler of modern Babylon was the yet untamed 
 despot who set up his gigantic idol of gold on the 
 plains of Dura: "Who is that God or man that 
 shall deliver you out of my hand ?" But there the 
 resemblance ends ; Nebuchadnezzar, humbled under 
 the mighty hand of God, lived to glorify him, and 
 died in peace : Lotharius de Signi feared not, re- 
 pented not, and the measure that he meted out to 
 others, the mercy that he showed to the harmless 
 flock of Christ, must be the measure of God's ter- 
 rible dealings with his ruined soul. 
 
 Such, it may be objected, is not the language of 
 Christian charity : but it is the language of Chris- 
 tian truth, and who shall say that these two attri- 
 butes of our most holy faith may be separated ? 
 Charity is a Christian grace, and, as such, it cannot 
 stand in opposition to the holy/oot whence it pro- 
 ceeds : it cannot call evil good, or darkness light, 
 or put sweet for bitter. We, at least, will not incur 
 the responsibility of so doing. We find the " son 
 of perdition " at his appointed work, and we recog- 
 nize him, and shudder. It may be well here to 
 note in brief outline the plan on which Innocent 
 III. was bringing to bear all the powers alike of his 
 natural character, and of his acquired position. 
 
 In the first place, he prepares a bull, breathing
 
 88 ANTICHRIST. 
 
 ill Jie vengeful hostility of his spirit against the 
 Count of Toulouse, as the presumed instigator of 
 Castelnau's assassination ; characterizing him as the 
 principal minister of the devil, and commanding a 
 public anathema to be pronounced against him in 
 every church throughout Southern Gaul, to the 
 princes and barons of which the manifesto was ad- 
 dressed, adding these words: "And as, following 
 the canonical sanctions of the holy fathers, we must 
 not observe faith towards those who keep not faith 
 towards God, or who are separated from the com- 
 munion of the faithful, we discharge by apostolical 
 authority, all those who believe themselves bound 
 towards this count, by any oath either of alliance 
 or of fidelity : we permit every catholic man, saving 
 the right of his principal lord, to pursue his person, 
 to occupy and retain his territories, especially for the 
 purpose of exterminating heresy." Moreover, he 
 laid under an interdict any and every place that 
 should afford a shelter to the murderers of Peter 
 Castelnau. 
 
 His next step was to stir up the fiery brotherhood 
 of Citeaux, Bernardines, to take the lead in the 
 movement against the Albigenses ; nominating their 
 abbot, Arnold Amalric, as his legate, and sending 
 them forth in a swarm to overrun the neighboring 
 provinces ; with a mission similar to that of Peter 
 the hermit in former days. He authorized them to 
 secure pardon and paradise to all who should take 
 up tb .1 cross against the hen tics ; and by this move-
 
 ANTICHRIST. 89 
 
 ment insured the speedy assembling of such an army 
 as was needed to execute his designs. The zeal with 
 which these men of peace obeyed the sanguinary 
 command, fully justified the confidence placed in 
 them. He then established a new order, under the 
 leadership of Dominic, the Spanish monk, whose 
 business it was to go in pairs through all the towns 
 and villages of the condemned districts, preaching, 
 admonishing, and contending against the faith once 
 delivered to the saints. They were to preserve the 
 aspect of great sanctity, zeal, and self-devotion ; in 
 every way to wia the respect and confidence of such 
 as had not wholly cast off their allegiance to the 
 church, and while strengthening them in the ancient 
 errors, to draw from them all that they knew respect- 
 ing the persons, occupations, places of resort, and 
 other particulars connected with their Albigensic 
 friends ad neighbors. Foulques, the bishop, whose 
 early accomplishments as a troubadour had been 
 enlisted into the ecclesiastical service, and for a 
 time captivated the Toulousians, became an eminent 
 leader in this preaching order ; subsequently merged 
 in that horrible creation of Rome, the Inquisition. 
 
 What more has Innocent to do, after thus craftily 
 disposing all the means at his command to draw th 
 snare around his prey ? He looks with a satisfied 
 eye upon the well-digested scheme, and seizes once 
 more the pen to address those whose practised mili- 
 tary skill must consummate his design. Once more 
 be summons Philip Augustus to assume in person 
 8*
 
 W ANTICHRIST. 
 
 the direction of the war; and with everj promise of 
 success, he also calls on the Duke of Bur '\rndy ; t 1w < 
 Count of Leicester, Simon de Montfort ; and other 
 nobles of high note, who were sure to hear from 
 the prelates of their various provinces^the continual 
 iteration of the pope's requisition. Some (ins may 
 elapse ere the vast machinery thus prepared can be 
 brought to commence working ; but never since 
 Rome's pagan myriads had revelled in the life-blood 
 of the earlier followers of Jesus within their ane.it.nt 
 colosseum, had so large a feast of martyr-blood been 
 catered for as that which now grew and flowed be- 
 fore the mental vision of Lotharius de Signi, as ho 
 planned the mighty havoc of a new crusade within 
 the secret chambers of <he Vatican. Well may 
 Rome emblazon and glory inkier appropriate mottOj 
 SEMPER KADEHL.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 THE threefol 1 object of the aggressor was, first to 
 tC destroy by a violent and cruel death all such as 
 dared to obey God rather than man ; worshipping 
 with a holy worship, in spirit and in truth, the God 
 of the spirits of all flesh, who seeks spiritual wor- 
 shippers to do him Ijonor ; and drawing nigh unto 
 him by the living way, opened through the flesh of 
 his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. These must 
 be cut off; for the faith which they held, recom- 
 mended by practice no less pure, was ruinous to the 
 kingdom of Antichrist. Secondly, those who, with- 
 out embracing their doctrines had tolerated them, 
 and who were living in neighborly good- will with the 
 Lord's peaceful followers, must be, as far as possi- 
 ble, involved in their destruction ; both because of 
 the undiscovered extent to which the taint might 
 have secretly spread itself, and in order to quicken 
 others, in different places, to the work of immediate 
 extermination, whensoever they should discover the 
 entrance among them of that which was pregnant 
 with such direfu'. consequences to its fosterers.
 
 8? THE CRUSADERS, 
 
 Thirdly, to subdue the dangerous spirit of indepen- 
 dence recently manifested among the nobles, who 
 could even dare to protect their own subjects from 
 the tyranny of the universal despot. To pass the 
 besom of indiscriminate destruction over the whole 
 suHace of the infected provinces, was the only cer- 
 tain method of accomplishing so extensive an end ; 
 and this it was resolved to do. 
 
 The instruments were worthy of the work. No 
 doubt there were among them some who believed 
 that the Moloch to whom Rome offered up her heca- 
 tombs, was indeed the God of heaven, and Father 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ : and that in obeying her 
 sanguinary behests, they were doing him service ; 
 but the greater number were debauched despera- 
 does, who, having no relish for the gentler walks of 
 life, no disposition towards industrious pursuits, nor 
 talent to acquire the means of gratifying their ava- 
 ricious propensities otherwise than by plunder, were 
 ripe for this or for any other outrage. We must also 
 look deeper into the constitution of the army ; it 
 was composed of such as at Satan's own instigation 
 dime forward to enrol themselves under his banner; 
 renewing and prolonging the memorable combat in 
 the wilderness. How awful is the thought that the 
 evil spirit, yea, multitudes of the fallen angels who 
 acknowledge him as their prince and leader, should 
 have entered the abodes and the hearts of thousands 
 of nominal Christians, gathering them together to a 
 partial and preliminary battle against the Lord God
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 93 
 
 Almighty preliminary to the last grand struggle 
 of the coming Armageddon, even as it was a sequel 
 to the first encounter in the desert of Judeai 
 It was " that old dragon, which is the devil and 
 Satan," who now, by the instrumentality of the 
 papal beast, made war upon the saints ; and all that 
 was his, the kingdoms of the world, their power 
 and glory, either swelled the advancing host, or fell 
 in prostrate submission before it. 
 
 It was a spectacle of pride for the arch-fiend to 
 contemplate, when the vast body of assailants was 
 assembled, and put in motion. They wore upon 
 their breasts the Nehushtan of the Christian dis- 
 pensation : the cross, by idolatrous perversion, ren- 
 dered a needless offence toman, and an abomination 
 before God. Not the cross in which Paul glo- 
 ried ; not the cross that crucified him to the world, 
 and the world to him ; not the cross of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, by which we understand his vicarious 
 death, undergoing a judicial curse on our behalf, 
 that so he might redeem us from the curse of the 
 law ; but the paltry representation of a Roman gib- 
 bet, on the original of which hundreds may have 
 suffered death before and after HIM whose precious 
 blood was shed for our redemption ; and the reten- 
 tion of which, as a thing to be venerated in the 
 Christian Church, is one of the inexplicable marvels 
 to which habit, not reason or religion, reconciles us 
 This cross, the c usaders of the East were wont to 
 wear upon the .houlder ; but, as if to show how
 
 94 THK CRUSADERS. 
 
 much nearer to their hearts was trie work cf she<l 
 ding kindred blood, the invaders of Provence placed 
 it on their breast. On appearing in this badge, 
 equipped for the expedition, each hoary transgres- 
 sor, e.tch wild reckless boy, each savage freebooter 
 and remorseless manslayer, was entitled to receive 
 a full acquittance of his vast debt, past and to come, 
 to the justice, the purity of the Most High God. 
 He engaged to serve for forty days, destroying with 
 fire and sword whosoever and whatsoever was 
 pointed out to him as lying under the ban of Rome ; 
 and he, in return, had forgiveness of all his sins, and 
 a free entrance into the paradise of God, guaranteed 
 to him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Truly, the most wonderful part of the mystery 01 
 iniquity is the inconceivable length of Satan's daring, 
 when he ventured to offer to the rational creatures 
 of God a lie so enormous, so repulsive, and so gross 
 is this. We turn with horror from the scene, over 
 which the devil and his angels must have exulted 
 with amazement at their own success, to take a sur- 
 vey of the devoted regions the terrified population 
 on whom this torrent of cruelty was preparing to 
 burst. 
 
 And first for Count Raymond. Had he been par- 
 taker even in a very small measure of the like pre- 
 cious faith with those whom he had hitherto pro- 
 tected, the gathering of those war-clouds, and mut- 
 tering?; of the rising storm, would but have dri\ i 
 him more close to the shelter of the everlasting Rock,
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 95 
 
 against which ths gates of hell rage in vain. He 
 would have strengthened himself in his God ; and 
 not feared what man could do unto him. Having 
 virtually admitted that the Church of Rome was & 
 false pretender to infallibility, and an usurper of 
 universal dominion, by openly encouraging those' 
 who renounced her worship and denied her au- 
 thority, he would have resolved to maintain his own 
 independence, his right, yea, his solemn duty to de- 
 fend the harmless and helpless flock of Christ, com- 
 mitted to his temporal keeping; and he would have 
 exerted his utmost influence among the nobles around 
 him, many of whom were already predisposed to the 
 same course ; assured that God would exert His 
 prerogative, and fu!61 His promise, making him, in 
 life or in death, more than conqueror. But such, 
 alas ! was not Raymond of Toulouse : he had re- 
 ceived the mark of the beast on his forehead, aYid in 
 his right hand : he professed the doctrines of Rome, 
 and had often wrought out her own unholy will, by 
 the power of his sword, and in the exercise of his au- 
 thority ; and now it was his choice, not to have this 
 mark washed away in the blood of the Lamb, but to 
 appeal to it as a defence against the vengeance of his 
 enraged tyrant. His own territories, he. well knew, 
 and his own person too, were marked for an especial 
 visitation : the death of Castlenau, in which he does 
 not appear to have been at all implicated, was laid 
 at his door; and on him was the first fierce outburst 
 of long- restrained enmity sure to expend itself. The
 
 96 THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 pope had apjtointed Arnold Amnlric Abbot of Ci- 
 teaux, legate in that part of the countiy ; a man who 
 combined in his character every leading feature o* 
 the papacy itself. Fierce, implacable, unmerciful ; 
 inflated with pride, and envenomed by the bitterest 
 hatred against Christ's people ; without a touch ot 
 natural feeling, even towards those of his own com- 
 munion, as the event proved, this haughty priest 
 seems to have been an incarnation of some fallen 
 spirit, intent only on trampling down as much as 
 came within his reach of the glorious handiworks of 
 God. Raymond knew with whom he had to deal ; 
 and he quailed as a poor, unassisted mortal might be 
 expected to do, when brought into direct collision 
 with principalities and powers, the rulers of the dark- 
 ness of this world, and wicked spirits in high places. 
 He summoned his nephew, Raymond Roger, to his 
 sidte, and prepared to present himself with him be- 
 fore the arrogant legate at Aubenaz. 
 
 Raymond Roger differed in many points from his 
 uncle ; having been placed under more favorable cir- 
 cumstances. He was only ten years of age when 
 the fair patrimony of Alby, Bezieres, Carcassonne, 
 and Limouse, devolved on him at his father's death ; 
 and those who governed for him during a long mi- 
 nority, not only favored the persons, but appear 
 to have siincerely appreciated the doctrines of the 
 Albigenses. The young count was now four-and- 
 twenty ; with all the generous ardor of that age 
 fairly enlisted on behalf of those whom Rome had
 
 THE CRUSA0ERS. 97 
 
 now coomed to utter destruction ; and surely he was 
 not himself very far from the kingdom of God. 
 The great day will reveal whether he attained to it, 
 through the " much tribulation" that he was des- 
 tined to endure for the cause, which grace was not 
 given him to identify himself with, in spiritual as 
 he did in temporal matters. He certainly stands 
 out in very bright and beatiful contrast to his un- 
 happy uncle. 
 
 At Aubenaz, enthroned in all the gaudy pomp of 
 sacerdotal vicegerency, sat the inflated Arnold ; and 
 around him were assembled those whose pitiable 
 distinction it was, to be nominated chiefs in this un- 
 holy war. The two counts sought an audience, and 
 were received with studied scorn and contumely by 
 the legate, who scarcely deigned to give ear to their 
 protestations of unshaken allegiance to the papacy. 
 The charge of holding any opinions by Rome branded 
 as heretical, they both repelled ; demanding a fair 
 trial to clear them from this aspersion, and also of 
 the false accusation of having been accessory to the 
 death of Castelnau. But the only reply thut they 
 could elicit from Arnold was a refusal to interfere, 
 with a haughty intimation, that if they sought any 
 mitigation of impending punishment, they must 
 carry (heir submission to Rome. 
 
 The terms of their submission were well under- 
 stood by the kinsmen, who retired to canvass the sub- 
 ject, on which they so differed as to part in mutual 
 warmth. The Count of Beziers saw, with indigua- 
 9
 
 99 1HE CRUSADERS. 
 
 tion, tliit his uncle was prepared to purchase such 
 peace and safety as might be gained by the unqual- 
 ified surrender of his poor inoffensive Christian de- 
 pendents into the hand of their sanguinary foes : 
 that he was willing to become himself the execu- 
 tioner of every murderous decree against them, and 
 by force of arms to compel the nobles around, inclu- 
 ding Raymond Roger himself, into a like course of 
 purveying human victims for the shambles of Inno- 
 cent ill. He protested that rather than see the 
 crusading army enter the province of Toulouse, he 
 would turn his hand against his next of kin ; and 
 by the most zealous execution of all their behests, 
 conciliate the dreaded ecclesiastics, in whose hands 
 the fate of princes was placed. He resolved to ap- 
 peal for assistance in carrying out this plan, to Philip 
 Augustus of France, who was his cousin ; and to 
 Otho of Germany ; while his lowliest, most unre- 
 served submission .should be laid, by fitting ambas- 
 sadors, at the footstool of the papal throne. To the 
 young, generous, and partially enlightened Raymond 
 Roger, this sounded as the language of dastardly 
 fear, and cruel treachery : and the moi-e so as it di- 
 rectly menaced, not only the subjects of the Count 
 of Toulouse, but his own, and the whole body of 
 .the so called heretics throughout the region. He, 
 therefore, avowed his determination of putting his 
 territories into a state of defence, and of faithfully 
 preserving what was committed to his charge ; and 
 they took their sevei il ways, with feelings and pur-
 
 THK CKUSADERS. 99 
 
 poses as dissimilar as those of any two men could 
 be wl o still outwardly wore the same badge of alle- 
 giance to the See of Rome. 
 
 It is difficult to decide what was the real tempei 
 of mind of the young count, on the important sub- 
 ject of religion. Probably he had no fixed views, 
 no serious impressions as yet, concerning it. Born 
 and reared in the very lap of Provencal refinement, 
 nurtured in poetry and romance, and full of the 
 spirit of chivalry, apart from all the stern fanati- 
 cism that had rendered it too generally a sangui- 
 nary scourge of the helpless, a hideous engine in the 
 hands of ecclesiastical tyranny, the youthful noble 
 had looked forward to the time when he should in 
 his own person become the mild and impartial ruler 
 of a loving people ; the fearless defender of his own 
 rights and .theirs ; the patron of literature and art ; 
 the promoter of a generous liberality, which he had 
 learned to admire in the guardians of his long mi- 
 nority. All this he might be without giving relig- 
 ion any prominent place in his regards : he might 
 deem it right, consistent, and expedient, to worship 
 externally where his long line of ancestors had wor- 
 shipped ; at the same time readily according toother 
 men their own free choice in the same matter. He 
 was lord of the temporalities of a wide domain ; 
 and he found another power claiming supremacy iu 
 spiritual things, including a very substantial proper. 
 fion of worldly wealth, by long- custom and by gen-
 
 100 THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 era! consent, secured to them as the remuneration of 
 their sacerdotal labors. 
 
 With this order of things he did not feel himself 
 disposed to interfere ; and we must regard his pro- 
 fessions of unshaken fidelity to the papacy, as a 
 simple avowal of such acquiescence in the laws of 
 his country. Here lie drew tlie line ; he would be 
 the servant of Rome just so far; but to do her sav- 
 age bidding in the slaughter or even the abandon- 
 ment of his innocent people ; to stain his knightly 
 honor with perfidy so deep, and to purchase the 
 continued enjoyment of his princely birthright, at 
 the price of permitting a horde of ruffians to riot in 
 the bloodshed of his subjects, and the plunder of 
 his land, far from the bosom of Raymond Roger 
 was a thought so base as this! His honest profes- 
 sion of spiritual allegiance had been spurned : his 
 demand for a fair investigation into the matter of a 
 murder with which he was not even remotely con- 
 nected, was denied ; and he was insultingly told to 
 repair to the chief ecclesiastic at Rome, in the char- 
 acter of a criminal suing for a commutation of his 
 sentence. We may very well enter into the feelings 
 with which the young chieftain quitted the presence 
 of the legate, and subsequently parted in anger from 
 his cpwed and dishonored kinsman, without enroll- 
 ing him among the persecuted saints on whom the 
 war was about to burst. We can conceive him, ic 
 the honest pride of an authority never by him 
 abused, summoning around him his knights, and
 
 THE CKUSADERS. 101 
 
 burgesses, and the bold youths who tiad grown up 
 with him in the peaceful luxury of his court; repre- 
 senting to them the contumacious wrong that he 
 had suffered at the hands of the pope's representa- 
 tive ; and kindling their indignation by the recital o 
 its effect on Raymond of Toulouse ; whose defection 
 from the cause of justice and independence, only 
 roused to a higher pitch their determination, un- 
 flinchingly to uphold it. The result was an imme- 
 diate application of all hands, to the work of forti- 
 fying the various towns and castles within his do- 
 minions ; and a bold resolve to be before-hand with 
 the Count of Toulouse in warlike demonstrations of 
 their intended line of conduct. 
 
 Military ardor, attachment to their young lord, 
 love of justice, impatience of oppression, and the 
 scorn that the ecclesiastics had generally brought on 
 their order, combined with a feeling of generous 
 sympathy and respect for their Albigensic compa- 
 triots, no doubt formed the chief ingredients in the 
 devotedness of Raymond Roger's followers to the 
 cause that he had so manfully espoused : but min- 
 gled with these there were the real objects of this 
 Satanic war, the children of God, who served him 
 in the Gospel of his Son. These wrought with their 
 neighbors on the ramparts, and the walls ; and aided 
 in every defensive work ; but they did it in the spirit 
 of the Jews who labored under Nehemiah upon the 
 rising bulwarks of Jerusalem. Though they used 
 every means to strengthen those earthly de'ences, 
 9*
 
 102 THE -CRflSADERS. 
 
 the hope of thtir hearts spoke but one language, 
 " The God of heaven, lie will prosper us." Though 
 they furbished the shield, and sharpened the spear 
 and made fast the rivets of knightly mail, yet they 
 trusted in none of these, nor in the fidelity of the 
 noble Count himself to their cause : they sheltered 
 themselves behind the shield of faith ; the weapon 
 which alone they knew to be mighty was the word 
 of God, precious fragments of which they possessed, 
 each in itself a sharp sword, sufficient to hold the 
 enemy of their souls at bay. The whole armor of 
 God secured them from shafts that aimed to wound 
 their immortal spirits ; what they might suffer at 
 the hands of those who had power to kill the body., 
 was to them no matter of deep concern ; they feared 
 only Him who can destroy both body and soul iri 
 hell ; and knowing the great love of God that had 
 not spared his own Son, but delivered him up as a 
 ransom for them, they also were filled with the per- 
 fect love that casteth out all tormenting fear. They 
 had two main objects of prayerful interest : their 
 own perseverance unto death in the profession of a 
 true faith, and the fate of their still unconverted but 
 generous and devoted countrymen rallying around 
 them in the hour of their darkest trial. No one can 
 say what multitudes were brought to God in the 
 course of that fearful struggle, what a harvest of 
 souls was reaped for heaven in those fields of blood ; 
 how many, long halting between two opinions, 01 
 unawakened to any feeling at all on the subject,
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 103 
 
 wero won to C.'hrist by the conversation, by the faith, 
 patience, endurance of his tried servants. No one 
 can say, how, in the midst of his infernal exultation 
 over the writhing bodies of the martyrs, the fiend 
 was tortured by seeing heaven's golden portals 
 thrown wide to receive a host of contrite spirits, 
 called, justified, glorified, with the rapidity that 
 marked the dying malefactor's conversion on Cal- 
 vary, rendering the scene of his apparent triumph 
 one of aggravated loss, defeat, and shame. 
 
 These are among the secret things that belong to 
 God alone ; but that they do occur we have many 
 delightful intimations. " Except a man be born 
 again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Thi? 
 we know, and we watch for evidences of that new 
 birth into the heirship of heaven ; and we know 
 them by their fruits, who have thus passed from 
 death unto life. But the moment at which a soul is 
 so born, who shall determine ? It is some moment 
 known to the Father of spirits : it is some point of 
 time, when it can be said, " This thy brother was 
 dead, and is alive again ;" some moment when the 
 angels of God burst into a song of joy, because a 
 sinner has repented, believes, and is put in posses- 
 sion of everlasting life. It is done before man can 
 perceive any trace of it : Ananias, a just man, a be- 
 lieving, obedient servant of the Lord, favored with 
 revelation too, was utterly staggered when told to 
 go and greet Saul of Tarsus with a message of love. 
 He even 1 xpostulatt A ; but the answer was conclu-
 
 104 THE CTHTSADERS, 
 
 sive, " Go thy way ; for he is a chosen vessel untc 
 me." Oh) the depth of the riches of redeeming 
 love ! 
 
 We should stand amazed indeed, could we trace 
 all ,hat is wrought by it in the world around us; 
 and more, we should become careless, presuming, 
 neglectful of our own great work in using means 
 for the accomplishment of what the Lord has Avilied 
 to do. Yet it is a cordial, good in such seasons of 
 trial to our faith, as this to the melancholy details 
 of which we are reluctantly drawing nigh. It is 
 good to remember that the Lord's little nock had 
 been, as the testimony of their enemies abundantly 
 shows, disseminating the truths of the Gospel on 
 every side, among friendly listeners, who were able 
 to test the doctrine by the daily walk of those who 
 proclaimed it; and to whom it was now to be given 
 to witness the power of God in them, triumphing 
 over death and hell ; while that foul system against 
 which they had steadily protested, was made to 
 stand forth in the utmost hideousness of its naked 
 atrocity, a combination of all that was diabolical. 
 Alike the dying prayers of the innocent victims, 
 and the yells of their infuriated murderers, must 
 have spoken a language that few hearts could re- 
 eiot, " Come out of her, my people !" 
 
 Yes, many did come out of her, who died with a 
 rosary at their girdle, and a crucifix in their bosoms, 
 before they had time to cast them off. Many, and 
 we delight to believe that Raymond Roger was
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 105 
 
 among them, learned in the darkness of a dungeon 
 
 o o 
 
 to rest in the bright beams of a Saviour's love. 
 These, had they survived, would have formed a 
 body of firm and fearless protesters against all the 
 abominations of the system from which they were 
 delivered ; but it was the will of God that in this 
 instance the beast, making war upon the saints, 
 should also overcome them in the sight of man ; for 
 they were delivered into his hand, and hence the 
 harvest was not allowed openly to ripen till the 
 sickle of death was prepared to be put in. We can 
 see, dimly and imperfectly, the outline of a very 
 mighty work ; we can comprehend how the garner 
 of heaven was replenished when the pleasant scene 
 of an earthly growth was laid waste, and trampled 
 down, and destroyed. God's work is too equal for 
 6ur unsteady eyes to follow close on its unwavering 
 line ; but the day is at hand when, in its magnificent 
 beauty, it shall be fully revealed, and our purified 
 vision shall be strengthened to gaze upon it : and 
 our lips shall be opened to utter with understanding 
 the predicted song of praise : " Marvellous are thy 
 works. Lord God Almighty : just and true are thy 
 ways. King of saints !" 
 
 If, among those who followed the profession of a 
 purer faith, were an}" who had forgotten the exhor- 
 tation to " cease from man," and had made flesh 
 their arm, by trusting in the favorable disposition 
 of the Count of Toulouse to uphold their cause, 
 they were coiivbced of theii sin, and made to r ealize
 
 106 THE CRUSADEK&. 
 
 the fulness of their peril, on the 18th of June, 1209. 
 On that morning a pageant wound its way through 
 the public streets towards the church of St. Gilles, 
 comprising an extraordinary number of ecclesiastics 
 of every order and degree, habited in their goodliest 
 raiment, and exhibiting in ostentatious display the 
 pomp and the pride of that renovated power to 
 which all else was rapidly succumbing. There were 
 the Bernadines, the boasted directors of the terrible 
 movement that was to annihilate all opposition to the 
 papal see ; there were the few first followers of Do 
 minic, fearful in the infamy of their sanguinary brotl; - 
 erhood ; and their dark leader silently pondering, 
 as he strode along, the mechanism of his project for 
 a permanent tribunal of irresponsible, irresistible 
 powers of destruction. There were the lazy monkn, 
 the denizens of many a fat abbacy, and mendicant 
 friars, and parish priests, from the humble curate to 
 the pompous prelate, each in his due place, distin- 
 guished by the habit of his order. One character 
 pervaded the whole mass : it was that of an ovation. 
 Their step was a march of triumph ; and every eye 
 was lighted up with an exultation that no one strove 
 to repress. Conspicuous above all rode the legate 
 Milon, the confidential secretary of Innocent III., 
 who had nominated him to the temporary dignity in 
 a show of compliance with Count Raymond's remon- 
 strances against being placed in the hands of Ar* 
 nold, whom he regarded as his personal enemy* 
 Milon was instructed to deal subtilly with this mis
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 107 
 
 erable dupe, allowing the Abbot of Citeaux to di- 
 rect and to devise every tiling, while be wore only 
 the semblance of authority to deceive the Count. 
 Gorgeously apparelled, and tended with the rever- 
 ence due to the Pope's representative, the nominal 
 legate presided over the cavalcade; his stately mule 
 led by knights of noble birth, while his own hands 
 vrere uplifted to dispense among the kneeling crowd 
 such blessings as Rome's delegate can bestow. 
 
 So far the triumphant ecclesiastics ; and next af- 
 ter them came the conquered captive. "Bareheaded, 
 and barefooted, his shoulders also exposed, in read- 
 iness for the coming infliction, while a cord was 
 knotted round his neck, in token of such criminality 
 as would have incurred a public execution but for 
 the merciful disposition of his judges, walked the 
 mighty and warlike prince, Count Raymond of Tou- 
 louse, who had submitted to this disgraceful humili- 
 ation as part price of the papal absolution. Half a 
 dozen tonsured officials of the church came close 
 behind him, bearing the instruments of flagellation ; 
 while the penitent, with arms devoutly crossed, and 
 eves cast down to the ground, where his ignomini- 
 ous halter trailed, wore the aspect of profound sub- 
 mission, and self-upbraiding sorrow for his past con- 
 tumacious r Distance of the holy church. It was a 
 spectacle on which few could look unmoved, though 
 for the greater part the emotions excited were such 
 as men felt it needful to confine within their own 
 bosoms. Of avowed and consistent believers none
 
 108 THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 were present; but there were mnny hundreds who 
 had virtually shaken off the fetters of the ptpncy, 
 and who, looking on the power of the ecclesiastical 
 order as a bygone thing, had accustomed themselves 
 to treat with undisguised scorn and derisioi. the very 
 men who were now setting their foot on the neck 
 of their chief. With bitter indignation, and stern 
 disdain, and struggling impatience of the yoke 
 which yet they knew not how to avert from their 
 unwilling shoulders, they beheld their fallen prince ; 
 and secretly- wished that his fall had rather been 
 into an honorable grave, that such an act of volun- 
 tary prostration under the heel of an usurpation that 
 he had long seemed to set at nought. But spies 
 were on every side ; accusers, who would make a 
 man an offender not only for a word but for a lock ; 
 and heads depressed, and brows bent, it might ap- 
 pear in submission or in devotion, were all that met 
 the scrutinizing gaze of the monks and their emis- 
 saries. 
 
 The church, of course, was filled with as many 
 of Raymond's knightly followers as could be sum- 
 moned to witness his shameful degradation. This 
 would answer the double purpose of alienating 
 them from a despicable chief, and of impressing 
 them with awful convictions of the church's power. 
 S'owly, and amid the chant of penitential psalms, 
 the culprit took his a way, in a long circuit through 
 the aisles of the church, offering homage at every 
 shrine, and exhibiting himself to each scattered por
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 109 
 
 tinn of the breathless congregation. The legate 
 was duly enthroned : his sacerdotal brethren took 
 their stations, so as best to display their numbers 
 and the gaudiness of their changeable attire: and 
 gome preliminary mummeries having been per- 
 "ormed, Raymond, Count of Toulouse, the lordly 
 prince, the veteran commander, the man who had 
 been set for the defence of a persecuted flock now 
 cruelly abandoned, was led as near as possible to 
 the altar, and scourged by the willing hands of the 
 monks, till the vaulted roof re-echoed their strokes, 
 and the blood that he dared not to shed in a lawful 
 resistance against sin, flowed to appease the roused 
 vengeance of Satan's vicegerent. 
 
 This being done, and a violent harangue from the 
 pulpit having set forth in glowing colors the enor- 
 mity of his crimes, and the marvellous tenderness 
 of Rome in sparing his forfeit life; with a full enu- 
 meration of the concessions that he had made, in- 
 cluding the surrender of his seven principal castles 
 to the Pope, and his unreserved submission to what- 
 soever sentence might be pronounced upon him; an 
 absolution, not less deg;ading than the flagellation, 
 was declared by the legate ; and in final token of 
 his perfect reconciliation to the papal see, Count 
 Raymond was invested with the white cross, and 
 commanded to unite his forces with those then 
 about to attack his nephew ; he also, as best ac- 
 quainted with the territories and the resources of 
 the assailed noble, becoming their principal guide. 
 10
 
 110 THE CRUSADEHS. 
 
 Disgusting and disgraceful as was the conduct of 
 Count Raymond, there is not at this hour a prince 
 or a warrior in Europe who would not act the same 
 part, at the beck of Rome, if but the Lord permit- 
 ted her to wield again the like authority, and re- 
 moved the restraining grace that alone keeps them 
 as yet from giving their power unto the Beast. Al- 
 ready, in England, we have our political Count Ray- 
 mond, pursuing the same career of degrading con- 
 cession to the demands of an alien usurpation, as 
 rapidly as the awakened Protestantism of the nation 
 will permit him to go on : and to " be beaten with 
 many stripes" will assuredly, sooner or later, be his 
 well-earned meed. Stripes that will but seal his ul- 
 timate condemnation with the brand of unrepentant 
 treachery. 
 
 The host whom the wretched Count was dis- 
 patched to join, consisted of three principal divisions, 
 of which the first had been chiefly collected at Ly- 
 ons, by Arnold the legate, and were subjects of the 
 Emperor Otho IV. The second division, subjects 
 of England, had been assembled by the archbishop 
 of Bordeaux ; and the third, who owed allegiance 
 to France, had the bishop of Puy for their leader. 
 Strange indeed does it sound, that men asserting 
 themselves to be ministers and preachers of the 
 everlasting Gospel, pastors of the Church of God, 
 should be named as generals leading an army to 
 battle : but so it was afore declared in the prophetic 
 word: " Tlid beast 1'iat ascenduth out <?f the bot-
 
 THE CRUSADERS. Ill 
 
 tomless pit," the vivid type of the Roman papal 
 power, was to "make war with the saints, and to 
 overcome them." 
 
 The amount of the combined forces is very vari- 
 ously stated : but fifty thousand is the lowest esti- 
 mate of the regular troops ; and to these we must 
 add a large multitude of disorderly followers, who 
 joined them in order to share the plunder, the spoil, 
 and the blessing promised by the holy see to all par- 
 takers in the crusade. Raymond met them at Va- 
 lence, and became their guide, as had been ap- 
 pointed, to the town of Montpellier, where they 
 made a pause, the legate enthroning himself as usual, 
 in supreme authority, civil, military, and ecclesiasti- 
 cal. Young Raymond Roger, still solicitous to pre- 
 serve his subjects from this terrible flood of enemies, 
 now rolling onward to their doors, and bold in con- 
 scious integrity, here made a last effort to obtain 
 what he soon found to be unattainable in that quar- 
 ter, righteous judgment. Personally he appeared 
 before Arnold, and pleaded once more his unshaken 
 allegiance to the church, towards which he declared 
 he had never done or intended any wrong. He de- 
 nied having received or supported any heretics ; and 
 desired that if any officers or subjects of his had so 
 done, they, not he, might be held responsible ; add- 
 ing that these officers had governed his territories 
 up to the present time. He again professed himself 
 the servant of the church ; and in that character 
 demanded favor. Happily for him, as we trust, hia
 
 112 THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 suit was rejected ; the legate told him to defend 
 himself as best lie might, for that no mercy would 
 be shown him. Once more the j'oung noble called 
 around him his attached followers, and communi- 
 cated the result of his appeal. It was probably 
 made at their instance ; for the spectacle of those 
 fierce and formidable troops, led on by the prelate of 
 a church from which not many had openly sepa- 
 rated ; and invested with a fictitious sanctity more 
 alarming to weak consciences than was their martial 
 prowess to an unequal force, might well cause the 
 bravest heart to shrink, when his own home, with 
 all its precious inmates, was the avowed object of 
 their sanguinary attack. The rejection, however, 
 of Raymond Roger's appeal, convinced them that 
 they had nothing to hope from concession ; that the 
 purpose of the papacy was to destroy, not to recon- 
 cile, those who had once dared to assume even the 
 semblance of independence ; and that their only al- 
 ternative now rested in a vigorous defence of such 
 posts as might be considered tenable, while others, 
 less favorably circumstanced, they must be content 
 to abandon to the advancing banditti. Where therf; 
 was no excuse for charging a community with the 
 existence of heretical taint, a weighty ransom in 
 gold was likely to be accepted ; and so it was at 
 Caussadi, St. Antonin, and one or two other places ; 
 two castles were left tenantless, and worthless to 
 either party : and c ne was burnt ; but all this in- 
 volved n<7 recorded mcrifice of life.
 
 THE CRCSADEKS. 113 
 
 was the first fortress that offered a determined re* 
 sistance, and here was the work of martyrdom com- 
 menced. 
 
 It must be always borne in mind that our only in- 
 formants on the subject of these murderous expedi- 
 tions are the aggressors themselves. They, with 
 
 OO 
 
 their attention eagerly fixed on the grand object in 
 view, have passed lightly over what to them ap- 
 peared but minor events, to dwell with fuller em- 
 phasis on the achievements that gave whole prov- 
 inces into their hands. Of Chasseneuil they have 
 said very little, for it was only a step on the way to 
 Beziers and Carcassonne; but we are told that the 
 garrison made a vigorous defence, until obliged to 
 capitulate ; and we know in what array, and under 
 what circumstances the assailants advanced. Con- 
 sidering that the garrison was principally composed 
 of men who nominally held the Romish faith, and 
 whose laxity of devotion in the service of the 
 Church was the effect of enlarged intellect, not of 
 enlightened conscience ; who were born, and who 
 ,'ully intended to die in her communion, and who, in 
 the midst of their preparations for defending their 
 lives and their property from an invading army, still 
 professed the most unshaken allegiance to the papal 
 see ; considering all this, we must marvel that the 
 sights and sounds most palpable among tbe advanc- 
 ing host, did not at once unman them all. 
 
 For there, sanctioning, and as he would fain have 
 it held, sanctifying the onset, rode consp.c-uously the 
 10*
 
 114 THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 representative of the sovereign pontiff, surrounded 
 by all the paraphernalia of his sacerdotal assump- 
 tions. There, in impious mimickry of the ark of the 
 LORD, which did indeed by its presence both sanc- 
 tion and sanctify the marches of the Israelites of 
 old, was borne on high the deified wafer, before 
 which every knee had been taught to bow, not as 
 the representative, but as the actual living, divine 
 reality of Christ's glorified body : so that they who 
 planted it in their van, pretended, and by the great 
 bulk of their opponents were believed, to be under 
 the personal leadership of the Mighty God. The 
 banners that floated over their lines bore the im- 
 press of the cross, to fight against which was, in the 
 superstitious apprehension of unenlightened minds, 
 to fight against the Redeemer ; and in like manner, 
 the sounds that rose high above the clang of armor, 
 and the heavy tread of the compact legions, were 
 not those of martial clarion, not the mimic thun- 
 der of the drum, or the trumpet-call that rouses 
 alike the animal courage of the horse and his rider ; 
 no, these might accord with scenes of mere earthly 
 strife ; but this was the battle of hell, waged in the 
 name and in the seeming panoply of heaven ; and, 
 therefore, we are told by the Romish chroniclers of 
 Rome's bloody deeds, that the music of that march 
 was furnished by the deep, loud voices of the mul- 
 titude of priests, who, arrayed in their robes, and 
 surrounding the wafer-god of heir infatuated idola*
 
 THE CKITSADERS. 115 
 
 try, pealed forth in mighty chorus the Latin hymn, 
 " VENT CKEATOR SPIRITUS." 
 
 Yes, they chanted forth, in loud and solemn fer- 
 vency, that really beautiful invocation to the Holy 
 (.ihost, often heard in the midst of our worshipping 
 congregations, who can join in it, without perhaps, 
 one aspiration of thankfulness to the Lord, that they 
 are by grace delivered from the grasp of that tre- 
 mendous lie which taught its votaries that He, the 
 Spirit of truth, 
 
 Whose blessed unction from above, 
 Is comfort, fire, and light of love, 
 
 was to be invoked to direct and preside over the 
 bloodiest deeds of cruelty, violence, and torturing 
 death, that men in the utmost frenzy of unbridled 
 ferocity could perpetrate against their defenceless 
 fellow-creatures. Oh, if we were to select one soli- 
 tary instance, whereby to prove the diabolical char- 
 acter of the Romish delusion, and to establish be- 
 yond a cavil its title to the distinguishing name of 
 the Antichrist, we would point to the crusaders, 
 rushing on their blood-stained way, with the tran- 
 substantiated wafer in their van, and the priestly in- 
 vocation A 3 the Holy Ghost, pealing in their ears 
 Mystery uf iniquity ! next after the depth of the 
 riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, surely 
 them, tremendous pit of Satanic darkness, art the 
 nost unsearchable of all things ! 
 
 It is no marvel, that t lus assailed, the garrison of
 
 116 TilE CHUSADERS. 
 
 Chassenueil made an unavailing stand. After -cnie 
 hard fighting, they capitulated; and obtained per- 
 mission to march out, with what they could 3arry 
 about them ; but no terms were listened to as res- 
 pected the unarmed inhabitants. It was known 
 that the Gospel leaven had found entrance there ; 
 that some few of the scattered saints who were the 
 real objects of this iniquitous war, and whom it was 
 Satan's purpose to root out, were mingled with the 
 population. Accordingly they were abandoned to 
 the merciless host, who permitted the soldiers to 
 depart, and then burst in upon the helpless citizens 
 It was their first prize ; the first fruits of their san- 
 guinary toils ; and whatsoever of unbounded crime 
 and cruelty the Evil Spirit could suggest, and the 
 Lord God of heaven saw meet to permit, that they 
 perpetrated. To select the followers of a true faith 
 from among the inhabitants, was not worth their 
 while : when nothing more remained for their vic- 
 tims to suffer but death, these wretched criminals 
 kindled fires wheresoever they could, and, amid the 
 applauding acclamations of the crusaders, and the 
 triumphant Te Deums of the priesthood, they hurled 
 them all into the flames. 
 
 It is one of the dreadful concomitants of war, 
 that a conquering army will use to the uttermost its 
 fearful power over a vanquished enemy. 
 
 The capture of a fortified place is followed by 
 scenes that humanity shudders to contemplate ; and 
 as, alas] cruelty is one of the vil dispositions of
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 117 
 
 man's natural heart, very savage deeds of wanton 
 cruelty, revenging upon the innocent, real or imag- 
 inary offences committed by others, will stain, more 
 or less, the hands of men who are so permitted to 
 follow their own will. But we must carefully dis- 
 criminate the slaughter of the Albigensic victims, 
 throughout this impious campaign, from all that be- 
 longs to war in general. No man, ostensibly, slew 
 an Albigensic captive to avenge his own quarrel, or 
 to glut his own cruelty. It was done as an accepta- 
 ble service to God : it was regarded as an act of such 
 transcendent merit, that ev ;n to devote forty days to 
 the mere attempt was sufficient compensation for the 
 sins of a long life, and ample purchase-money for 
 heaven. The shouts that arose from the crusaders 
 as the naked bodies of those inoffensive sufferers 
 writhed, and blackened, and crackled in the flame, 
 were ascriptions of praise to the God of all mercy 
 that He had given into their hands those whom they 
 held it meritorious so to torture and to kill ; and if 
 there was one among them of a disposition naturally 
 tender and humane, who would rather have rescued 
 a fellow-creature from suffering than inflicted a need- 
 less pang, that person would score down to himself 
 a larger amount of merit, seeing that he had sacri- 
 liced inclination to duty, and become a tormentor 
 and a murderer for the love of God. The deeper 
 we explore these times and scenes, and the charac- 
 ters th-it figured in them, the more perfectly shall 
 We be enabled to id ntify all with the prophetic
 
 118 THE CRIS.ADERS. 
 
 word that foretells with wonderful minuteness the 
 eventful history of the Church of God. 
 
 Henceforth the tale must be one of mourning 
 and lamentation, and woe, so far as the visible and 
 temporal things are concerned ; but, looking to the 
 things that are unseen and eternal, we may rind mat- 
 ter for a song of rejoicing praise, where fi'jsh can 
 only shudder, and humanity weep. For this great 
 onset upon the Church of Christ, Satan had all along 
 chosen his instruments with the craft and subtilty 
 that are peculiarly his ; and now he could look on a 
 widely-extended field of victims, of whom by far the 
 most pitiable were the shedders of innocent blood. 
 We count them happy who endured, even unto death, 
 the afflictions and persecutions whereof the Lord has 
 forewarned His followers ; but how terrible the dis- 
 covery to be made sooner or later by the persecu- 
 tors, that the master whose bidding they hastened 
 to do Avas indeed the prince of darkness ; and the 
 wages of their work, everlasting death ! Yet this 
 compassion has its limits too ; for the God of grace 
 and of mercy left not himself without such witness, 
 even in the few and mutilated fragments of scrip- 
 tural truth that were still retained in the system and 
 the services of Rome, as sufficed to condemn the san- 
 guinary, the licentious, the graspingly avaricious 
 cravings that were openly fostered and pandered to 
 in these infamous wars. A man may be belie\ed to 
 act conscientiously according to his views of duty, 
 however mistaken, whc famishes, lacerates, and oth-
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 119 
 
 erwise mortities his body ; because there are seveial 
 passages in the New Testament very capable of be- 
 ing so wrested ; and he may, in the like sincerity of 
 error hold it meritorious to repeat long prayers, to 
 perform many superstitious acts, and to render undue 
 honor to those whom he believes to be divinely gifted 
 for his guidance in spiritual matters : but the con- 
 science must indeed be seared with a hot iron, and 
 given over to believe a soul-destroying lie, through 
 real, wilful disbelief of the most obvious truths, be- 
 fore the same individual can profess to believe in tho 
 Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world ; 
 can avow himself a follower of One who, as ho 
 knows, came not to destroy men's lives, but to savn. 
 and at the same time number among the most ac- 
 ceptable services to be rendered to that God and 
 Saviour, the cold-blooded slaughter of his fellow- 
 creatures ; the plunder of their possessions, and th 
 wanton, savage destruction of all that he cannot ren- 
 der subservient to his own selfish and sinful purpo- 
 ses. Such was ever the principle of papal rule; 
 such was solemnly declared and established as its 
 deliberate doctrine, at the very period of which we 
 write. The fourth Lateran Council, with its unre- 
 pealed decrees and murderous denunciations, placed 
 the fact beyond dispute, as we shall by and by see. 
 Chassenueil having fallen, and leaving nothing but 
 a blackened heap of ruins, sprinkled far and wide 
 with th ashes of the bodies that had been burned 
 in heaps within it, the next point of attack was Bo
 
 120 THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 Hers. Here Raymond Rcger was known to hava 
 strongly fortified himself, with a garrison of chosen 
 knights, and devoted citizens, of whom a large pro- 
 portion were undoubtedly alienated from the idola- 
 tries of Rome, before the present revolting act of 
 aggression roused their spirit to resist her cruelty. 
 The proceedings in this place were so characteristic 
 of all parties, that they deserve as detailed an ac- 
 count as existing records will admit of. 
 
 The bishop of the diocese, Reginald of Montpey- 
 roux, employed himself in a diligent search after all 
 upon whom he could fasten any charge of heresy, 
 and having made out a list of every suspected family 
 and person, he used his official privilege to seek an 
 interview with the legate, who was now advancing 
 with the army ; placed the document in his hands, 
 and required in the name of their holy mother 
 church that the individuals so marked out should be 
 committed to the flames. Having executed this 
 sacred mission, he returned to his flock, as from a 
 mere compulsory visit of duty to the Pope's repre- 
 sentative, and magnified to the uttermost the dan- 
 gers that impended over them, describing in the 
 most alarming terms the numerical and physical 
 strength of the assailing bands. He wrought art- 
 fully upon the secret apprehensions that agitated 
 many bosoms when they found that their young 
 chief, after visiting Beziers, inspecting its fortifica- 
 tions and stores, and encouraging the garrison, in- 
 Btead of staying to superintend the defence in per
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 121 
 
 fcon, withdrew to the stronger position oJ Carcas- 
 sonne v. hicli, in the event of their fall would be the 
 next to endure an assault. The bishop well knew 
 tlie disheartening effect of the young count's de- 
 pa! ture, and he made the most of it. Assembling 
 tin; citizens in the church of St. Nicaise, he ad- 
 dressed them from the altar ; and concluded an art- 
 ful harangue by offering them, in the legate's name, 
 favorable terms, provided they would only deliver 
 up those who were known among them as schis- 
 matics from the Romish communion. By so doing, 
 he assured them, they might, but in no other way 
 could they, preserve themselves, their wives and 
 children, from the horrors of such pillage and mas- 
 sacre as would follow t \ successful assault, and their 
 souls from the tremendous wrath of heaven and the 
 church. They paused, for the peril was imminent, 
 and very terrible indeed was the glittering array 
 that overspread every part of the surrounding coun- 
 try ; as, like a swarm of locusts, the crusaders ad- 
 vanced on their prey. They paused, but it was 
 only for a moment : the reflection of a purer light, 
 shining on them from the scattered few who them- 
 selves reflected the image of Christ, had dispelled 
 much of the darkness that broods where Popery 
 reigns. With a burst of noble enthusiasm, they 
 drowned the voice of the tempter, crying out, " No: 
 tell the legate that our city is good and strong ; that 
 in this our great necessity, the Lord our God will 
 be our succor ; and that, rather than commit the 
 11
 
 122 THE CRTTRADERS. 
 
 treacherous act suggested to us, we will eat oui 
 own children." 
 
 The populati >n of Beziers, including garrison, 
 citizens, an 1 all classes, is stated by some to have 
 amounted to sixty thousand persons : others rate it 
 much lower. Stout hearts, strong hands, and a 
 righteous cause combined to encourage them against 
 the great and terrible armament that drew nearer 
 and nearer to their walls, spreading such a multi- 
 tude of tents and gay pavilions, and displaying so 
 formidable a host of warriors, as proved that the 
 description of their treacherous bishop, which they 
 would fain have regarded as an extravagant fable, 
 was not even an exaggeration of the reality. As 
 yet, the enemy was busily employed in forming and 
 strengthening a camp, from which it was probable 
 the host must carry on the operations of a protract 
 ed siege ; for Beziers was a powerful-looking place, 
 with its solid walls, and massive square towers, 
 crowning an abrupt height with a broad deep river 
 at its base. The citizens beholding these prepara- 
 tions, and seeing the abundant means provided for 
 effectually prosecuting the work when all should b 
 fitly arranged, considered it the most favorable mo- 
 ment for a sally : they formed in a body, and rushed 
 down, with impetuous courage, upon the foe. These, 
 however, had the advantage, in point of numbers, 
 ol ferocity, and of being long inured to deeds of 
 blood ; and th people of God had been given, for
 
 THE CfttTSADRRS. 123 
 
 A time, into the hand of the Avicked ana cruel one 
 The infantry sustained the shock unmoved ; then 
 becoming the assailants, the}' speedily turned the 
 disheartened citizens, drove them hack, and in one 
 dense mass of pursuers and pursued, they all entered 
 the gates together. Beyers was in the hands of th0 
 Crusaders. 
 
 The great strength of this fortified town, had 
 drawn wilhin its Avails multitudes of the villagers, 
 and scattered inhabitants of a Avide surrounding 
 district. AH the rural population Avere assembled 
 there; and among them, undoubtedly, a large pro- 
 portion of those against whom the Avrath of the 
 dragon and of the beast was especially kindled-^- 
 the true worshippers of God, Avho served Him iu 
 the Gospel of his Son. There Avere, however, A r ery 
 many, Avhose allegiance to Rome could not be ques- 
 tioned, and who were fully bent to die as they had 
 lived, in her communion. This Avas known to the 
 knights, Avho had been accustomed in the miscalled 
 " holy wars" to discriminate carefully as to their A'ic- 
 tims. The butchery of Saracens, and, perhaps eA-en 
 more, that of God's ancient, afflicted people Israel, 
 was with them a matter of meritorious duty ; but to 
 imbrue their hands in the blood of such as bowed 
 duAvn to the same crucifix, and Avorshipped the same 
 wafer, and invocated the same dead saints with 
 themselves, Avould have appeared a departure from 
 their prescribed path. Accordingly, Avhen it was 
 ascertained that Beziers was in their hands, Jim)
 
 lt>4 THE CnttSADERS. 
 
 that, of course, the heretics must fall, s:me of those 
 commanders came to the legate, Arn:;ld Amalric, 
 with the natural question of How they were to 
 distinguish the Catholics from the heretics ? The 
 reply of the Abbot has been recorded by his own 
 friends and followers, or it would scarcely be credi- 
 ble. He answered, " Kill them all ! the Lord will 
 know well those that are his !" 
 
 While this was going on, the poor devoted flock 
 crowded into the churches, as though any sanctuary 
 existed for them, which the wolves of Rome might 
 respect. There were in Beziers a great majority of 
 women and children, sent to those strong walls for 
 protection by husbands and fathers, who themselves 
 remained to garrison posts deemed less impregnable. 
 These, with the whole body of citizens and refu- 
 gees, took shelter in the places of worship, unless 
 when their feeble steps were overtaken by the mur- 
 derer's rapid stride, and their course cut short in 
 blood. The large cathedral church of St. Nicaise 
 was completely thronged : and the canons, minis- 
 ters as they were of the Romish religion, investing 
 themselves with the sacerdotal habit, which surely, 
 they thought, must be a sufficient protection against 
 the soldiers of their own faith, ranged themselves 
 round the altar. No voice could have been heard, 
 in supplication, amid the din, and the crash, and the 
 shrieks of that fearful scoe of blood ; but the poor 
 canons sounded the consecrated bells, in deep, and 
 melancholy, and appealing tolJ, hoping so to tour.h
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 125 
 
 the hearts of the fierce assailants. In vain ! Rome 
 leaves her conscience-seared votaries with he.-irts no 
 less effectually seared into utter insensibility to the 
 pleadings of pity : the tide of cowardly massacre 
 rolled on ; cut down, and crushed beneath the armed 
 heel, and mangled with the spear, one after another 
 the victims fell, as the blood-stained fanatics ap- 
 proached the altar ; and there the canons also fell, 
 hurled upon the general heap, while the progress of 
 the work was marked by the ceasing of successive 
 bells, as the hands that tolled them fell powerless in 
 death ; and the silence that followed the last sad 
 note proclaimed the consummation of that fearful 
 massacre. The dead bodies that lay, bathed in 
 blood, on the pavement of one church, the Magda- 
 len, amounted to seven thousand. The babe at its 
 mother's breast, the aged man beneath his daughter's 
 arms, vainly uplifted to defend his silver locks, while 
 her own bright ringlets were dripping blood. Yes ; 
 they killed them all. ! 
 
 There is a world into which the eye of living man 
 hath not pried, and of which the fearful secrets are 
 but dimly revealed in the parables of Him who made 
 all worlds. There is a place where the ungodly rich 
 man, " being in torments, lifted up his eyes, and 
 saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." 
 How tremendously nwful is the solemn thought, the 
 assured fact, that of all who slew, and of all who 
 were slain, at the bidding uf Arnold Amalric and 
 his wretched confederates, not one has perished 
 11*
 
 126 - A .rE CKUSADERS. 
 
 each and all are now in existence, awaiting the d<5 
 when they must stand before the judgment-seat of 
 Christ ! Centuries have passed, and their names 
 and their deeds are by-gone things ; but not one 
 among them, persecutor or persecuted, destroyer or 
 destroyed, lias ever known a moment's oblivion of 
 that scene. The people of the Lord, faithful unto 
 death, washed from every stain in the blood of the 
 Lamb, entered into rest, commencing the eternal 
 song of praise ; and looking forward to the great 
 day of final vengeance, when the enemies of Christ 
 shall forever be put under his feet. The spirits in 
 that dark and dreary prison, whence there is no 
 egress, save to final judgment and to public doom, 
 feel in the recollection of those dreadful deeds the 
 gnawings of a worm that dieth not, the kindlings 
 of a fire that cannot be quenched ; and Arnold 
 Amalric can reiterate with terrible meaning the 
 words of his blasphemous mock ; " The Lord will 
 know well those who are his!" 
 
 The massacre occupied a very short period: 
 where no resistance could be offered, and the vic- 
 tims were thronged within a limited space, the work 
 of cutting them down was easy and expeditious. 
 This being done, plunder was the next concern. 
 Such of the decrepit, the sick, and otherwise help- 
 less as had been unable to leave their dwellings, were 
 speedily butchered there, and all that could lonipt 
 the hand of rapacity, from the costly elegancies 
 of the palace, to the simple but treasured heir-
 
 T11E CRUSADERS. 121 
 
 loom of the modest cottage, was grasped and appro- 
 priated, as if to perfect the antitype of that traitor 
 who also " was a thief, and bare the bag, and stole 
 what was put therein." So easy a conquest, so 
 sweeping a massacre, and so rich a booty, could not 
 bat tend greatly to encourage the invaders. Masses 
 were celebrated, and thinksgivings pealed forth by 
 thousands of voices, to the God of holiness, and 
 love, and peace ; while the blood of His saints, that 
 day shed like water on every side, coagulated upon 
 the spot where those vain worshippers stood ; and 
 the unburied corpses, with glassy stare fixed on the 
 sky, presented an appeal not overlooked by Him, 
 who has said, " Vengeance is mine, I will repay." 
 
 The closing act of this savage tragedy was to set 
 fire to the stately city in every quarter, consuming 
 with it the immense mass of its slaughtered inhab- 
 itants. So perfect was the work of destruction, 
 that not a single dwelling remained, nor aught that 
 fire could destroy, of that proud Beziers, in which, 
 next to Carcassonne, Raymond Roger and his sub- 
 jects placed their trust, as being able to hold at 
 bay, for an indefinite length of time, the crusading 
 army. These, it must be remembered, had only en- 
 gaged to serve for forty days ; and every hour was 
 rendered precious to the assailed, by the hope, that 
 a protiv.cted defence might reach to the termination 
 of this limited engagement. The dark volumes of 
 
 O O 
 
 smoke, and red glare of flame that rose from the 
 V>fty turrets of Beziers, told a tale of terror and dis-
 
 128 THE CRTTSA: EKS. 
 
 may to the surrounding country. Every place wan 
 presently deserted, from the strong but isolated cas- 
 tle to the lowly shepherd's hut, and the vine-dress- 
 er's lodge. No hope of security remained for these 
 scattered ones, except within the walls of Carcas- 
 sonne, where Raymond Roger still encouraged hia 
 people to hold out ; cheering by his presence and 
 undaunted bearing their hearts, of which, perhaps, 
 none were sadder than his own. But the forest 
 depths, and mountain caves, and passes known only 
 to native feet, afforded a refuge to numbers who 
 either were unable to reach the fortress, or doubted 
 the issue of an assault upon it ; and who preferred 
 the perils and privations of such concealment, to 
 the issue of a siege. Perchance too, there were 
 among these some who scrupled to use the carnal 
 weapon in what they felt to be the battle of the 
 faith. It was no new page in the history of God's 
 church that they of whom the world was not wor- 
 thy, should be destitute, afflicted, tormented, wan- 
 dering about, in dens and eaves of the earth. 
 
 After the one day's deadly work at Beziers, the 
 exulting host set forward again, spreading over the 
 country, according to the information of the traitors, 
 chiefly ecclesiastics, who acted as their guides to the 
 castles of the nobles. These they found, indeed, 
 strongly fortified by nature and art, but altogethei 
 deserted by their inhabitants. More than a hun- 
 dred- of them they burned to "'he ground, desolating 
 the lands, destroying the vintage, and fulfilling to
 
 THK CRUSADERS. 1J49 
 
 the uttermost of their power the type of the locust 
 army. It was on the first of August that they 
 found themselves within sight of Carcassonne. 
 Here, beside the Aube, they hastily encamped with- 
 out molestation, and prepared to assail it on the fol 
 lowing day. 
 
 The .eader in this attack was Simon de Montfort, 
 Earl of Leicester, whose character stands out in 
 frightful prominence, embodying all that was most 
 flagitious in perfidy, most grasping in avarice and 
 ambition, most pitiless in cruelty, and most grovel- 
 ling in the debasing superstition which, if he felt it 
 not, he at least assumed, as the divine warrant for 
 all his crimes. By the mother's side, his English 
 ancestry was noble, and distinguished, tracing its 
 root to royalty ; but his birth was French, and he 
 had devoted his life to the service of the nominal 
 church ; having especially made himself conspicu- 
 ous in the Eastern Crusades. Nothing could better 
 accord with the bent of this man's mind than the 
 present war with the Saints. Pie hated with deadly 
 venom the faith and the followers of Jesus, and 
 sweet to his spirit must have been the dying cries 
 that resounded through Beziers. Impatient to re- 
 new the scene, he led his troops to an attack on the 
 outlermost suburb of Carcassonne ; but he was met 
 by Raymond Roger, at the head of his gallant 
 knights and citizens, who, during a combat of two 
 
 o o 
 
 hours, repulsed the enemy. The subui b was, how- 
 >ver, weakly brtifiet 1 , in comparison with othei
 
 130 THE CKUSADERS. 
 
 quarters, and at length its defenders abanJone, it, 
 retiring into the second suburb, which de Montfort 
 also attempted to carry, b it in vain. For the space 
 of eight days the young Viscount made good his 
 position, continually driving back, with considerable 
 loss, the besieging body. At the end of that time, 
 he deliberately fired the buildings that composed it, 
 so depriving the enemy of any advantage that they 
 might have derived from its possession ; and leav- 
 ing it a mass of smoking ruins, he retreated into the 
 city. 
 
 Imagination would fain picture the throng of 
 anxious faces that looked down from the rampart- 
 walls upon their gallant chief and his companions in 
 arms, while thus holding at bay the ferocious con- 
 querors of Beziers. There were many whose dear- 
 est earthly ties had there been cut asunder by the 
 Crusader's sword, without having even fallen under 
 the suspicion of disloyalty to Rome ; and many 
 others who were more than willing to shed their 
 own life-blood in testimony to the faith of the Gos- 
 pel, witnessing against her abominations. There 
 \va,s not one, perhaps, who did not feel a personal, 
 loving interest in the noble Raymond Roger; and it 
 would be little short of sinful unbelief, to doubt 
 that the supplications offered on his behalf, through 
 the alone Name of the all-sutricient Saviour, were 
 heard and answered n the revelation of the Son ol 
 God to his soul. On^e more, having abandoned the 
 useless suburb, Raymond found himself in the midst
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 131 
 
 ftf his people ; and with full purpose of heart he 
 prepared to defend the stout ramparts of Carcas- 
 sonne. 
 
 But flesh and blood were not all against which he 
 had to contend : it was an hour when the powers of 
 darkness had permission to prevail against the Lord's 
 people, and against their honest-hearted protector. 
 Inured as we are to contemplate the dark deeds of 
 papal perfidv, glorying in its deepest shame, there 
 is still that in the villainy perpetrated against the 
 young Count that kindles afresh the flame of indig- 
 nation, extorting the apostrophe addressed to a mi- 
 nor criminal of old, " full of all subtlety and mis- 
 chief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all 
 righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the 
 right ways of the Lord !" 
 
 The sovereign to whom Raymond Roger had 
 vowed fealty, was Peter II., King of Arragon, who 
 was also his uncle ; and though a slave to the pa- 
 pacy in spiritual matters, still alive to the cruel in- 
 justice done to the young noble; and to the perfidy 
 of the Count of Toulouse, whose presence here and 
 at Bexiers must not be forgotten. The Spanish king, 
 repairing to the camp, addressed himself to this un- 
 happy nobleman, who had married his sister, and 
 un'ed him to unite in an effort on Raymond Roger's 
 
 J O 
 
 behalf, offering to act as mediator between the par- 
 ties. The legate, to whom of course the proposal 
 was communicated, gladly availed himself of such 
 unexpected means for obtaining information of what
 
 132 THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 was going on within the city, accepted the good of- 
 fices of the king, and issued orders for the suspen- 
 sion of hostilities, while the royal negotiator was 
 engaged in his humane task. It was a spectacle 
 of moving interest to the harrassed sufferers, the 
 approach of their monarch. Walls and bastions, 
 turrets and platforms were thronged by eager gaz- 
 ers : the marksmen stood prepared, alert on the 
 watch to detect any movement of treachery in the 
 camp ; but all was quiet there. Carcassonne pre- 
 sented one living 'mass of anxious, yet trusting and 
 undismayed inhabitants, while the drawbridge 
 clanked heavily as it fell, the dark portcullis slowly 
 rose, the massive bolts of successive gates were 
 withdrawn, and the dense body of armed men fell 
 partially back, opening a sufficient space for the 
 king and his few attendants to pass on. The heart 
 of Pfter, already awakening to a sympathy with his 
 persecuted people which ultimately led him to yield 
 his life in the battle against Rome, now swelled as 
 he received their loyal greetings, and yearned with 
 paternal love towards the noble young man who 
 knelt at his feet in affectionate homage. 
 
 Having ascertained from the Viscount his willing- 
 
 O O 
 
 ness to submit to any fair and honorable terms of 
 capitulation, for the sake of the helpless multitudes 
 who had taken refuge there, and who must perish 
 in a protracted siege, as already they had begun to 
 do, under the presence of terror, sickness and pri' 
 vation, "but for whom," said Raymond, " I swear to
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 133 
 
 your majesty, that I and my own people would 
 rather die of famine than surrender to the legate." 
 Peter returned to the camp ; and, strangely igno- 
 rant of the spirit of those with whom he had to 
 deal, endeavored, by representing the young noble's 
 extremity, together with his elevated self-devotion, 
 to kindle in the bosoms of Rome's delegates what 
 Rome never knew compassion for the afflicted, and 
 sympathy with the generous. Arnold Amalric, re- 
 joiced to have engaged so useful though unconscious 
 a tool for his iniquitous designs, heard the king out ; 
 then, as a matter of special grace to his majesty's 
 kinsman, yielded permission for Raymond Roger to 
 select twelve individuals, with whom he might quit 
 the city unmolested ; but the sacred cause of the 
 most holy Church demanded that, with this excep- 
 tion, all should be abandoned to her mercy ! 
 
 Dark and sad was the brow of the kingly media- 
 tor as he re-entered the gates, flung wide with joy- 
 ous alacrity to admit his returning steps ; and sorely 
 did his royal spirit writhe beneath the fetter of 
 papal bondage, as he delivered to the Viscount the 
 mocking message with which he was charged. All 
 the generous ardor of Raymond Roger's charactet 
 was roused into a flame : he looked round on the 
 terrified multitude, who had too truly read in the 
 kind's countenance, the failure of his mission ; he 
 
 O 
 
 looked on the faithful companions who had fought be- 
 side him every day, and patiently held with him the 
 long night's watch ; and while the glow of iadigna- 
 12
 
 134 Tttfi 
 
 tion mi.ntled his choek, he answered with Vehement 
 energy, " Rather will I submit to be flayed alive ! 
 The legate shall not have at his mercy ;he least of 
 my companions ; of these who, for my sake, havfi 
 braved the dangers that surround us." 
 
 Instead of urging the acceptance of Arnold's in- 
 solent terms, the king of Arragon warmly applauded 
 his nephew's reply ; and then turning to the knights 
 and citizens, who gathered eagerly around him, he 
 exhorted them to defend themselves, as the only 
 alternative ; seeing what they had to expect in the 
 event of surrendering. Surely, as that monarch 
 repassed the drawbridge of Carcassoune, he must 
 have felt the iron of Rome's despotism entering his 
 very soul. So, sooner or later, will all do, who lend 
 their power to the Beast, or even suspend the re- 
 sistance on which depends their self-preservation. 
 The King of Arragon, as he bore back, with a forced 
 semblance of personal courtesy, that noble defiance 
 to the inflated priest, must have envied the exalted 
 position of the poorest citizen who had barred the 
 gate on his retreating steps. A fearful account have 
 those monarchs to render who connive at the spread, 
 or even at the existence of the papal usurpation over 
 souls committed to their parental charge ! 
 
 Scarcely had the king quitted the legate's gor- 
 geous pavilion, making known what every one was 
 fully prepared to hear, ere a fresh and furious as- 
 sault was made upon the walls of Carcassonne. 
 With ferocious shouting* cheering on each othor to
 
 THE CrJSADfiHS. 13d 
 
 the work, the army brought faggots, wl ich they 
 cast into the ditches, endeavoring so to fill the chasm, 
 and form a path to the ramparts. Very little oppo- 
 sition was offered, and they reached the walls, in- 
 tending to scale them ; when a sudden deluge ol* 
 water and oil, heated to a boiling pitch, with masses 
 of stone, bars of iron, and missiles of every descrip- 
 tion, were hurled upon them from above; and this 
 was repeated as often as they rallied to the charge, 
 until many lay slain, and serious discouragement man- 
 ifested itself in the host, who considered that their 
 stipulated work was to murder and to plunder, not 
 to wage equal war with men of courage and of 
 strength. Confident assurances of a miraculous in- 
 terposition had been spread among them, to heighten 
 their fanatic zeal ; recollection that their forty days' 
 engagement was well nigh expired, combining with 
 the spectacle of their slaughtered comrades beneath 
 the walls, began to operate so unfavorably, that the 
 crafty legate perceived he must strike a final blow, 
 or behold the escape of a prey that he could not 
 endure to lose. Employing the arts that rarely fail, 
 he so won over a gentleman in his retinue whom he 
 knew to be a kinsman and early friend of Raymond 
 Roger, as to induce him to become a decoy for that 
 noble-minded young man ; who, on his part, desired 
 nothing so much as to obtain for his companions the 
 amnesty which he was assured would be accorded 
 to them, could he but himself fairly plead a causu 
 that lie knew to be righteous and just. The legate'a
 
 138 THE CRtTSADERS. 
 
 bait was, theiefore, presently taken: Raymond Ro- 
 ger asked and obtained a safe conduct for himself 
 and such companions as he should bring with him, 
 into the presence of the legate : and back to the 
 city if their negotiation failed. Solemn oaths con- 
 firmed the pledge, on the part of tke crusading 
 leaders, who all joined in the legate's guarantee ; 
 and, thus assured, the young lord of the desolated 
 Beziers placed himself at the head of three hundred 
 chosen knights, and marched forth lambs into an 
 assemblage of wolves ; unsuspecting birds Hying 
 into the snare of the fowler! 
 
 In the legate's pavilion all the principal leaders 
 were assembled ; and they masked their foul de- 
 sign, and gazed with concealed triumph on'their in- 
 nocent prey, while, in a speech full of the nobfest 
 sentiments of princely and chivalric devotion, if no 
 higher and holier principle was set forth in it, he de- 
 fended his own conduct, and pleaded the cause o{ 
 his people. He censed, and awaited the legate's 
 reply : it was given, as Rome generally replies to the 
 plea of reason and conscience. In a moment the 
 overpowering rush of armed men decided the matter ; 
 Raymond Roger was disarmed, bound, and delivered 
 as a traitor to the custody of the dark and merciless 
 Simon de Montfort. His knights were in like man- 
 ner seized, and within sight of the agonized citizens 
 of Carcassonne, all weie led away in captivity; to 
 what fate mighi easily oe conjectured. The shout 
 of anticipated riumph, of unbounded vengeance,
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 137 
 
 cse ..igh from the perfidious camp towards the 
 walls of the city that should on the morrow reek 
 with such blood, and blacken under such flames as 
 had recently swept through Beziers. But such was 
 not the Lord's will : an ancient subterranean passage 
 of several leagues in length existed, known but to a 
 few of the most trusty burgesses ; and wholly unsus- 
 pected by the enemy. In the darkness of evening, 
 the whole population entered this cavern, and closing 
 after them its secret mouth, they journeyed on ; in 
 darkness, and in silence, and in sorrow ; weeping the 
 fate of their beloved chief, and the rendering ot 
 many a fond tie never, to be re-united on earth : but 
 they went safely ; and the morning sun shone on 
 the deserted towers of Carcassonne, lisrhtinsr the 
 
 O o 
 
 ravenous eagle on his path, not to seize the prey, 
 and revel in his Avonted feast of blood, but to ascer- 
 tain that, by means wholly inexplicable, that prey 
 had escaped ; and the only vital streams he might 
 hope to drain were those of his noble, his betrayed 
 captives of yesterday. 
 
 No means wore neglected by Arnold Amalric to 
 make a fair show of what was universally felt as a 
 baffling arid mortifying discomfiture. He caused it 
 to be reported that he, acting in his irresponsible 
 capacity of spiritual leader, had seen good to permit 
 the secret evacuation of Carcassonne by the bulk of 
 its inhabitants, having first secured the person of 
 the contumacious Raymond Roger, and of a certain 
 12*
 
 139 THE CKUSADEKS. 
 
 number of .suspected heretics, who would be immo 
 lated in the midst of the deserted city. He entered 
 its walls with the usual warlike pomp of his most 
 incongruous command ; took formal possession of all 
 the spoil in the name of the Church, and then pre- 
 pared the spectacle that was to gratify his san- 
 guinary band of fanatics. 
 
 In addition to the three hundred gallant knights 
 who had accompanied Raymond Roger, on the 
 strength of the legate's safe conduct, and who had, 
 with him, been treacherously overpowered and im- 
 prisoned, the scouts of the army had captured a 
 number of poor fugitives in the act of escaping by 
 mountain-passes, and through forest tiacts, from the 
 beleaguered city. Many of these were women ; 
 mothers with their infants, and maidens seeking to 
 rescue their still younger brothers and sisters from 
 the sword of slaughter, or hastening in silent panic 
 to hide themselves, after the terrific view obtained 
 from the walls, of that fierce band of violent and 
 cruel men. From all these, Arnold selected four 
 hundred and fifty individuals, as lying under just 
 suspicion of heresy, and condemned them to public 
 execution. To vary the spectacle, and as far as he 
 could to gratify the taste of his followers, he ordered 
 fifty of these to be hanged, while four hundred were 
 burnt alive. At Beziers, the work was a general 
 massacre ; this bore rr are of the aspect of a martyr- 
 dom. There the word was "Kill them all!" here, 
 from a limited number, entrapped by shameful fraud,
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 139 
 
 or seized by cruel force, a selection was m?tde, and 
 every individual suffered as a Christian. We hum- 
 bly trust that all among them deserved the name; 
 that such as had not fled from the sorceries of Great 
 Babylon, and laid hold on the free mercies of God 
 in Christ Jesus, were enabled so to do, in that day 
 of calamity, and were made worthy of the martyr's 
 crown. The day is coming, that shall reveal all 
 these things ; and when the past is laid open to our 
 view, with all its horrors, when we see before us 
 those who were most cruelly tortured and slain for 
 the testimony of Jesus, we may comprehend some- 
 what of the spirit of that exulting apostrophe, " Re- 
 joice ! ye heavens, and ye holy apostles and prophets : 
 for God hath avenged vou of her!" 
 
 O ' 
 
 The last emblem of the fading fires had died away, 
 and the suspended bodies waved, cold and rigid, in 
 every light breeze that swept over the lofty turrets 
 of Carcassonne, and none survived but the captive 
 in his lonely dungeon, of all who had peopled the 
 busy scene, and had owned its many habitations. 
 In their stead was to be seen a motley crew, gath- 
 ered from among all classes, and wearing the cos- 
 tume respectively of France, of England, Germany, 
 Italy, and the provinces. Innumerable, and active 
 beyond all others, were the swarms of priests and 
 friars, passing to and fro, kindling and keeping alive 
 the spirit of merciless bigotry in ihe bosoms of men 
 who regarded them as their only guides to heaven; 
 and who never paused to inquire how far the doc-
 
 140 THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 trines taught, the example set, and the actions 
 prompted by them accorded with the unhersa-lly 
 admitted fact, that the God whom they professed 
 to represent is a God of holiness and mercy ; of 
 truth and love. But for these firebrands of Rome, 
 the flame of persecution against God's heritage had 
 never been kindled : under their rule it was likely 
 never to be quenched, while one mortal was sup- 
 posed to breathe, independent of the papal will. 
 
 Grouped together, in one of the open squares, 
 near which hung the ghastly forms of several of 
 Raymond Rogers's noble knights, might be seen 
 some warriors of lofty bearing, whose brows were 
 clouded, and their tones bespoke a swelling indig- 
 nation. They were lords of France, who, while 
 they saw the fairest scenes of their fertile country 
 desolated, and the life-blood of their countrymen 
 and countrywomen shed like water on every side 
 by the hands of a foreign banditti, while murder in 
 cold blood was the finale to every combat, and the 
 vilest were selected to butcher the noble and the 
 fair, had begun to ask themselves how far it con- 
 sorted with their knightly and national honor to 
 take part in such disgraceful scenes at the bidding 
 of a monk. Arnold Amalric could not remain in 
 ignorance of any whisper that was breathed touch- 
 ing the supreme power of Holy Church ; and this, 
 of course, speedily reached his ears. He therefore 
 prepared to meet the rising spirit of dissatisfaction, 
 by a new prize for the ambitious to grasp at. He
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 141 
 
 called a council, and set before the assembled no- 
 bles the necessity of placing the conquered prov- 
 inces under the rule of some prince, whose martial 
 prowess should help forward the work, and his de- 
 votion to the Church prove a guarantee for his zeal- 
 ous co-operation in utterly exterminating heresy 
 The viscounties of Beziers and Carcassonne were 
 now at his disposal ; and he concluded by declaring 
 his intention of conferring them on the Duke of 
 Burgundy. That prince, however, much to the le- 
 gate's dismay, not only rejected the gift, but de- 
 clared that they had done Raymond Roger wrong 
 enough already, without also despoiling him of his 
 heritage. Language so accordant with their new- 
 ly-awakened feelings of compunction was eagerly 
 echoed by other princes : The Count of Nevers, and 
 the Count of St. Paul, to whom it was alternately 
 offered, expressed themselves to the same effect ; 
 and Arnold began to feel the perplexity of his situ- 
 ation ; and, to lighten the burden, took two bishops 
 and four knights into commission with himself, to 
 deliberate and decide on the fate of the desolated 
 provinces. They made sure of their man before 
 again subjecting their princely offer to a refusal. 
 Simon de Montfort, avaricious, ambitious, cruel, 
 and utterly without scruple as to the means by 
 which his evil propensities were to be gratified, was 
 not likely to decline the gift, or to shrink from tht 
 deed that would most effectually confirm it. Ha 
 accepted the lordship of his noble prisoner, Ray
 
 142 THE CRUSADr,KS. 
 
 mond Roger ; and he sealed the contract by admin 
 istering to the Viscount, who, it will be remembered, 
 was committed to his safe-keeping, a dose of poison. 
 
 It was publicly announced, with all due manifes- 
 tations of regret, that Raymond Roger had died of 
 a severe epidemic, and only the suspicion that must 
 rest on such an event, at that juncture and under 
 those circumstances, could be brought to contradict 
 it ; but the master-spirit of all this iniquity, the pre- 
 siding Pope, has left it on record in his voluminous 
 correspondence, that Raymond Roger died a violent 
 death. In the Beast's wiir with the Saints, he thus 
 ft,'ll, firmly espousing and faithfully upholding the 
 cause of the saints : and we do trust, that the great 
 day of the Lord will reveal him, numbered with the 
 saints in glory everlasting. 
 
 But this assassination was not perpetrated until 
 the November following the siege, although we may 
 well believe that it formed part of the original plan. 
 The wretched Count of Toulouse was an eye-witness 
 to all that his cowardly perfidy had brought on his 
 noble nephew, and the many thousands of innocent 
 victims whose blood cried aloud from the ground. 
 But no hope could exist that the Viscount of Beziera 
 would ever so bend his neck beneath the yo'ke. Ex- 
 communication laving been fulminated against him, 
 followed by forcible deposition and imprisonment, 
 death only remained. He was no longer the lord of 
 I hose magnificent domains, but a private individual, 
 accused of heretical pravity. Nevertheless, the fact
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 143 
 
 rfras plain, that he still reigned in the wannest affec- 
 tions of his people ; and it also became manifest that 
 his brother nobles entertained a strong feeling of 
 sympathy for his afflictions : they had come up to 
 fight against him : and, blinded by the sorceries of 
 Rome, they had connived at the infamous act by 
 which he was decoyed, betrayed, and captured. 
 Still, when they saw a comparative stranger, of char- 
 acter so repulsive as de Montfort, taking high state 
 upon him, and carrying on a war of extermination 
 against the refugees who were now his subjects, 
 as one by one he reduced the castles where they had 
 endeavored to fortify themselves, these nobles were 
 moved by a spirit of commiseration for the young 
 Viscount, that might ripen into something danger- 
 ous to Simon's ill-acquired power ; and hence the 
 execution of the last enormity the murder of the 
 imprisoned Raymond. 
 
 The expiration of the forty days had found de 
 Montfort embarrassed by his recent acquisition ; and 
 had all the crusaders then returned to their homes, 
 he might have sought in vain to make good his hold 
 on the prey : but though many withdrew, others 
 were found willing to prolong the term of their ser- 
 vice, in the prospect of farther blood and spoil. 
 Besides, they were now in some sort under the lead- 
 ership of him who assumed to be lord of the terri- 
 tory, and who would have it in his power to reward 
 with permanent advantages, such as might show 
 themselves zealous in assisting to establish his do*
 
 144 THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 minion. Here we see the craft and sul tlety of Satan 
 and his agents : much of the fierce fanatic zeal that 
 led the army forth, had now been quenched in 
 blood ; many who seriously made the bargain with 
 God's pretended vicegerent, purchasing absolution 
 for all their sins at the regular price of forty days' 
 service in the cause of " the church," having fulfilled 
 their part of the compact, recognized no further 
 claim upon them. It was, therefore, needful to 
 prepare some new bait; and this was done, by 
 placing before them not only heretics to extirpate, 
 but rebels- to subdue : not only towns to sack, with 
 a general scramble for portable spoil, but broad 
 lands to be parcelled out, and fair portions to be be- 
 stowed by a sovereign prince, under whose banner 
 they were invited to enlist ; while he professed no 
 other object than that of doing the will of the 
 church, and conquering the whole country, that he 
 might lay it at the feet of the Pope, wholly purged 
 of whatsoever had dared to exalt the Gospel of 
 Christ above the bulls of the Vatican. Simon de 
 Montfort knew well his position ; he had withheld 
 his acceptance of his captive's possessions, until the 
 bishops publicly threw themselves at his feet, im- 
 ploring him to assume that authority in order to 
 avenge the quarrel of the Church, and to crush her 
 audacious enemies, whom they represented as being 
 too numerous, and through the countenance afforded 
 by the barons, too powerful, to be subdued without 
 the aid of the secular arm of military prowess
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 145 
 
 The war from first to last, and in all us bearings, 
 was avowedly waged against those whom God de- 
 signates as his saints ; and Simon de Montfort miglrt 
 just as well have aimed to seize the crown of France 
 or of England, as the viscounties of Beziers and 
 Carcassonne, had he stood forward in any other 
 capacity than that of the champion of the Church, 
 warring against heretics. 
 
 Yet, with all these facts spread before us on the 
 page of history, recorded in the letters of Innocent 
 111., and chronicled by Peter de Vaux Cernay, the 
 exulting eye-witness of such atrocities as we have 
 noticed and have yet to notice with all this, it is 
 actually become a point of honor with some Protes- 
 tant writers, and ministers of religion too, in our 
 day, to vindicate the Church of Rome from the 
 charge of persecuting cruelty ; to deny that she has 
 ever made war upon the saints, or that they have 
 been delivered into her hand ! In too many cases, 
 this argument is pursued with a covert design of 
 ultimately bringing back to Home those who have 
 happily " come out of her ;" in others, it is adopted 
 to support a theory concerning the supposed futurity 
 of the revelation of Antichrist : but in either view 
 it is an unwarrantable denial of some of the plain- 
 est facts that can be pointed out in the page of his- 
 tory ; a closing of the eyes against the most striking 
 fulfilment of the prophetic word. 
 
 Yet worse, if possible : this argument can only 
 be sustained by assisting to perpetuate, and to cir- 
 13
 
 146 THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 culate more widely, the shameful calumnies uttered 
 against Christ's little flock by their cruel destroyers. 
 The blessing was not attached to persecution only ; 
 there were other adjuncts, set forth by our Lord 
 Himself. "Blessed are ye when men shall revile 
 you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner 
 of evil against you, falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, 
 and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in 
 heaven ; for so persecuted they the prophets which 
 were before you." If this important mark of disci- 
 pleship had been wanting : if the servant had been 
 above his Lord, and the household had remained 
 with characters unassailed, where the Master of the 
 house had been called Beelzebub, we might indeed 
 find cause to hesitate, and to ask, Could these 
 be the saints ? But no such difficulty meets us : 
 charges the most foul, the most incredible ; charges 
 precisely similar to some that were brought by the 
 heathen against those who formed the very earliest 
 Church of Christ, were unsparingly heaped upon 
 the harmless Albigenses, so completing the picture 
 that in all its parts it was truly theirs. They were 
 " poor in spirit ;" humble, unobtrusive people, pur- 
 suing in quietness their lowly occupations. They 
 " mourned ;" not only the perpetual dishonor 
 brought on the name of Christ by those who as- 
 sumed lo be his followers and his ministers, while 
 living in the open practice of idolatry, and of every 
 moral transgression, but the heavy calamities brought 
 on a friendly pe opl by thwir sojourn among
 
 THE CRUSADERS. 147 
 
 and the certain fate that awaited them and theirs, 
 gave them cause to mourn ; always sorrowful, though 
 always rejoicing. They were "meek ;" marvellous 
 are the instances of lamblike resignation, unresist- 
 ing submission to the hand that brandished I he 
 knife, heaped the faggot, or knotted the cord, that 
 should send them by a violent death into the pres- 
 ence of the Lord. We never hear of the Albigen- 
 ses, as such, taking up arms to defend themselves : 
 the price at which mercy might have been obtained 
 by the citizens of the assailed places, was that of 
 delivering them up to the will of their enemies. 
 Resistance on their part was never pre-supposed, 
 either in the proffer or in the refusal of such terms. 
 That they hungered and thirsted after righteous- 
 ness, was, in fact, the very ground work of the charge 
 against them : their anxious search after simple 
 truth, their rejection of all that militated against it; 
 their diligent use of the means of grace, exhorting 
 and confirming one another in the faith ; their as- 
 semblages for prayer and praise, and breaking of 
 bread ; all these things are notorious, as the hold 
 that their enemies took on them. Had theirs been 
 a religion of negatives, they might have lived safely 
 and quietly enough. That they were merciful, do- 
 ing wrong to no man ; that purity of heart was 
 evinced by i spotless life, is evident. The very 
 name by which they were known in Italy, Cath- 
 ari, expresses purity : and it was alleged against 
 them as an aggravation of .their heretical opinions,
 
 148 THE CRUSADERS. 
 
 that they recommended them by such sanctity of 
 conduct as drew many to listen to them. Peace- 
 makers they were, in the fullest, highest sense of 
 the word ; for not only did they iead lives of exem- 
 plary peaceableness, but they spread on all sides the 
 Gospel of everlasting peace ; even that peace which 
 the blood of the cross makes between God and 
 man. Persecuted, and that for righteousness' sake, 
 they were, even to the death ; with the most savage 
 and sanguinary persecution that Satan could devise 
 and man carry out ; and here we have eight out of 
 the nine marks by which our Lord describes those 
 who are " blessed." But, on coming to the ninth, 
 it is found to form the pre-eminently distinguishing 
 feature of this afflicted Church ; and therefore " 
 fools and blind !" therefore the case is decided 
 against them, and sometimes too by men whose 
 office it is to remind the disciples of the Lord that 
 he has also said, " Woe unto you when all men 
 speak well of you ; for so did their fathers unto 
 the false prophets." 
 
 But, leaving out of the question the actual char- 
 acters of the Albigenses, let us turn to the vaunted 
 Church of Christ, and inquire how she fulfilled her 
 duty towards those whom she believed to be still in 
 fatal error. It is impossible for any searcher of 
 God's word to be in doubt as to the course indicated 
 for the Christian, whether lay or clerical, to take, in 
 reference to such as disbelieve or even oppose the 
 Gospel. " Knowing the terrors of the Lord, wo
 
 THK CRTTSADEKS. 149 
 
 persuade n,en," not imfrison, torture, and burn 
 them. "Showing out of a good conversation your 
 works with meekness of wisdom " not with the 
 thunder of menace, and the violence of armed power. 
 Above all, in the instructions expressly given, by di- 
 vine inspiration, to one who was ordained to a high- 
 ly responsible office in the Christian church, and 
 through him to all who should hold the like author- 
 ity, we have these emphatic words : " The man of 
 God must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, 
 patient, in meekness instructing them that oppose 
 themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them 
 repentance unto salvation, that they may recover 
 themselves from the snare of the. devil, by whom 
 they are led captive at his will." The very worst, 
 most extravagant, most incredible charges brought 
 against the Albigenses and other victims of Romish 
 
 o o 
 
 persecution, could not, if fully proved, amount to 
 more than this that they were entangled in the 
 snares of the devil, and led captive by him at his 
 will. Where is the gentleness, where the patience, 
 where the meek instruction that the " man of God " 
 is commanded especially to bring into prominence 
 in such a case ? Shall we seek them in the annals 
 of Peter de Vaux Cernay, or in any annals, ecclesi- 
 astical or secular, of Papal Rome ? Seeking, shall 
 \ve iind aii"ht but the darkest, most fearful contrast 
 
 O 
 
 to what the Holy Spirit has traced as the duty, the 
 badge of Christ's Church ? Yet once again, " Breth- 
 ren, if one of you be overtaken in a fault, ye that 
 13*
 
 150 Jifc CRUSADERS. 
 
 are spiritual restore such an one in 'Jic spiiit 01 
 meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be 
 tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so 
 fulfil the law of Christ." That loving law of Him 
 who came not to destroy men's lives, but to save 
 them ; who called on the sin-burdened pilgrim to 
 learn of Him, the meek and lowly-hearted Saviour, 
 that he might find rest unto his soul ; who bade to 
 bless, not to curse ; yea, to return cursing with bless- 
 ing, and hatred with love, and persecution with acts 
 of benevolent good will that law stands out in such 
 dazzling contrast to the blackness of darkness that 
 shrouds such deeds as we are compelled to recog- 
 nize as the authorized and vaunted deeds of Romish 
 cruelty throughout the blood-stained history of her 
 /ron rule, that we gaze with dismay upon the spec- 
 tacle, and reject, on the strength of God's own 
 word, the claim of the alien usurper to any part of 
 lot in the matter of our faith and hope " By theif 
 works ye shall know them."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CAVERN. 
 
 XT is now winter: heavy rains have swept over th 
 mountain-ridges the fallen honors of summer, and 
 
 O 
 
 accumulated in the narrow passes below a body of 
 humid obstructions, that render them well nigh im- 
 passable to unpractised steps. At intervals a nar- 
 row cave presents an opening, lately overhung with 
 the mingled festoon of tangled wild-flower and strag- 
 gling vine, the pleasant retreat of the weary travel- 
 ler or laboring hind, during the noontide hour, when 
 the rays of a vertical sun streamed down into the 
 little valley, but now steaming with unwholesome 
 damps, sufficient to repel any foot from their chasms, 
 however way-worn, and solicitous for momentary 
 repose. The continual drip from overhanging heights, 
 far above, and the frequent bursting of a miniature 
 cascade from some gully where the waters had ac- 
 cumulated, rendering these low passes so uninviting 
 during the wet season, that he who should have 
 chosen to shape his course through one of them, 
 must not calculate on meeting a fellow-man in their 
 anwholesome recesses. The neighboring peasants.
 
 152 '. HE CAVERN. 
 
 and such as, in more genial seasons, would Iia7 
 preferred the sheltered glen, now took a more cir- 
 cuitous route, on firmer ground, and in a more ele- 
 vated region. 
 
 Yet here if; is that ve must search, if we woulil 
 meet with the scattered remnant of the Lord's ex- 
 hausted flock ; once so fairly pastured where none 
 made them afraid, under the kindly sway of Ray- 
 mond Roger, viscount de Beziers. WoundeJ and 
 torn, despoiled of the little all that once was theirs, 
 hunted f'om their houses, and sprinkled in their 
 flight with the life-blood of their nearest, dearest 
 connections, overtaken by the armed assassin's arm, 
 these forlorn beings would still persist in assembling 
 themselves together, for purposes of prayer, aud 
 praise, and mutual exhortation ; though to do so 
 they must brave danger in many forms, combining 
 the possibility of discovery where every nook and 
 corner was likely to be ransacked fora fresh victim, 
 with the more certain perils of that most unwhole- 
 some atmosphere, leaguing as it seemed to do with 
 merciless man for the destruction of the helpless. 
 
 Different indeed is the group that we shall now 
 encounter, from the peaceful little congregation 
 formerly assembled in a spot no less peaceful than 
 themselves. Not many aged pilgrims are here : the 
 tottering step ever proved unequal to escape the 
 powerful stride of pursuing hatred; and in many 
 instances the silver-haired Christian had offered him- 
 self more than willingly to death for the testimony
 
 THE CAVKUN. 158 
 
 f Jesus. But there were many of middle age, 
 whose premature gray hairs bespoke a heaviei bur- 
 den of years than they had really borne, and whose 
 frames, bent with sorrow and privation, and habitual 
 crouching in low places for concealment, had lost 
 the elasticity belonging to them. Among these 
 were widowed wives, bereaved mothers, and men 
 whose utmost strength had been exerted in vain to 
 save their partners and their little ones from the 
 deadly grasp of Rome's vulture bands ; and who 
 had themselves escaped, they knew not how, or why, 
 save that it pleased the Lord they should yet a while 
 remain to glorify Him in the fires. There was youth 
 too, blooming and bright when the last summer's 
 flowers had bloomed ; but now scarcely less a blight- 
 ed wreck, as to outward things, than were the con- 
 fused and undistinguishable remains of those fair 
 Bowers beneath their feet. Tender childhood had 
 rarely survived the sweep of massacre, the toils and 
 terrors of the flight, and the pinching hunger that 
 wasted their half-clad bodies in those desolate 
 hiding-places; and few there were of these: but 
 infants had been born, even in the dens and caves 
 to which kindred love had contrived to bear the 
 mother; who now hushed in her sunken bosom the 
 feeble cry that might perchance arrest the attention 
 of some wandering foe. Sorrow, deep sorrow, was 
 graven on every countenance ; for they mourned the 
 vineyard of the Lord, trampled down and destroyed; 
 they mourned the gal 'ant. fa'rhful countrymen and
 
 154 THE CA 
 
 fellow-citizens, who, though not partakers in the lik? 
 precious faith with themselves, had refused to pur- 
 chase security at the price of their lives, and had 
 fallen in the common defence. They mourned the 
 beloved Raymond Roger, of whom they knew no 
 more than that he was counted as dead, and his 
 lands and honors grasped by de Montfort, who now 
 sought them also that he might put them to a cruel 
 death ; and they mourned over Simon himself, and 
 his partners in crime, who were treasuring up for 
 themselves a harvest of eternal wrath. Imperfectly 
 as the Albigenses were acquainted with those Scrip- 
 tures which we possess in full, and can search 
 throughout, they had not all the encouragement 
 that we, in their circumstances, should have for 
 " rejoicing in tribulation ;" but they knew in whom 
 they believed ; and most assured they were that He 
 was able, yea, had promised, to keep that which 
 they committed unto Him, to the great day. Their 
 faith, too, had received a fearfully .strong confirma- 
 tion, by beholding the awful crimes perpetrated in 
 the name, and for the furtherance of that system 
 which they had rejected as unscriptural and unholy : 
 and as now thev gradually assembled, beneath the 
 arch of a somewhat larger cavern than the rest about 
 it, where the cold drip from the roof sent a frequent 
 shiver through their emaciated limbs, they freely 
 strengthened each other in their God, even on the 
 
 O 
 
 very ground of their terrible sufferings in the cause 
 f a denounced and persecuted aith
 
 Tfi CAVERN. 155 
 
 But within this natural excavation was another, 
 formed by human hands. A grave was dug, in the. 
 further and drier part, and the soil heaped up beside 
 It. One who had suffered the loss of all tilings for 
 Christ, who had seen his wife dragged away from 
 his side, while he lay wounded and helpless, a fugi- 
 tive from Carcassonne, and forced back to the city 
 to swell the company of martyrs there; while, one 
 by one his tender little ones perished on the way, 
 had now himself been called to enter into rest; and 
 with that tenderness towards the mortal remains of 
 a believer which well becomes those who rightly un- 
 derstand the doctrine of the resurrection, his sur- 
 viving brethren had resolved to bury him in a se- 
 cure place. For it was a common practice on the 
 part of the warriors of the church to rend from their 
 silent resting-places such as had been br.mded when 
 alive with the stigma of heresy ; and to expose th< it 
 decaying remains to every species of savage indig- 
 nity. It therefore became an interesting duty, and 
 one of no trifling importance in the sight of the poor 
 flock, to insure for their departed brethren an undis- 
 turbed grave. 
 
 There was no funeral procession formed in thai 
 secluded valley: a few months ago, and the body 
 now about to be stealthily interred would have been 
 borne to the tomb with many simple honors by the 
 open-hearted citizens of Carcassonne ; for he was 
 kncwn and respected, and had moved in a rank 
 above the majority of those openly professing the
 
 156 THE CAVERf, 
 
 same faith. But here it was different : the assembled 
 group looked anxiously forth from their hiding-place, 
 and when they saw a stout man, habited as a labor- 
 ing peasant, approaching with a common sack, heav- 
 ily filled, upon his shoulders, they drew back, and 
 hung their heads, and wept. Few things could 
 more touchingly realize their outcast, branded state, 
 than this sad contrast to what had been, when in 
 solemn array they were wont to chant their funeral 
 hymns beside the bier of a departed brother. 
 
 Gently, most gently, was the sack lowered from 
 its panting bearer to the ground; and reverendly did 
 many luuids assist to stretch the dead man's doubled 
 limbs upon its outspread surface : and to smooth his 
 ruffled hair, and restore as much as they could of out- 
 ward composure to the body whose immortal spirit 
 was resting and rejoicing before the throne of the 
 Lamb. This done, in the dim twilight of the cavern 
 they formed a circle round the corpse, and commenced 
 their whispered discourse, one well versed in scrip- 
 ture, quoting the words, " If in this life only we had 
 hope of Christ, we were of all men most mise ruble !" 
 a touching appeal to the recent experience of each 
 individual present, every one of whom had under- 
 gone such extremities of misery, in one form or 
 another, that the retrospection would scarcely have 
 been endurable but for the sweet assurance that all 
 had been encountered for Christ's sake ; and thai 
 having suffered, they should also vign with him. 
 
 " Ay," said a woman, whose household had been
 
 THE CAVERN. 151 
 
 slaughtered in the cathedral of Btziers, "but we 
 have a better and a brighter iiope than this world of 
 sorrow holds forth to us. Here we must bear the 
 cross : there, we shall wear the crown." 
 
 Another remarked, " The Lord Jesus was juried 
 in a cave, and a great stone was rolled to the mouth 
 of the tomb, which a mighty angel moved away that 
 the Saviour might arise : our dear brother also will 
 have a cave for his resting-place ; but it will need no 
 angel to open his grave, for at the first sound of the 
 voice that awakens the dead, he will start, and arise, 
 and, like Lazarus, come forth to meet the Lord." 
 
 A murmur of gladness ran through the little band, 
 as one and another repeated, " We shall all be there : 
 we, and those who are gone before, and those 
 whom we leave behind. There will be no more 
 sorrow, nor crying : no fierce warriors, thirsting for 
 blood, no unholy priests to profane the Name of 
 the Lord, as though he had come to destroy and not 
 to save his believing people. There we shall look 
 back on all our sufferings, and rejoice exceedingly 
 that we were made worthy to endure them for His 
 dear sake. Oh that they who hate us, and pursue 
 us unto death, might have their eyes enlightened 
 and their hearts turned ! Oh that the blood of the 
 innocent which cleaves to their hands and to their 
 souls, might be wa>hed away by the blood shed 
 upon the cross." And the prayer increased in fer- 
 vency, as, kneeling round the corpse, they con- 
 trasted the happy lot of the believer with the dread- 
 14
 
 158 THE CAVERN. 
 
 ful doom that awaits the persecutor : the wrath of 
 God revealed from heaven against the unrighteous 
 and cruel man. 
 
 While thus thev pleaded, and gave thanks to God 
 for his rich mercy to themselves, until the very gate 
 of heaven seemed opened to their view, and the real- 
 izing eye of faith rested on glories invisible to mor- 
 tal ken, a shadow darkened the mouth of the cav- 
 ern, but no one entered. It might have been the 
 overshadowing of a darker cloud, coming over the 
 mountain's brow ; but its movement, now advan- 
 cing, now retreating, and then suddenly withdrawn 
 altogether, proved it to be somewhat else. " We 
 are traced, or betrayed," whispered one of the par- 
 ty, when the prayer was concluded, but no farther 
 notice was taken ; and after a while they proceeded 
 to the work for which they were assembled, gently 
 drawing the lifeless body towards its shallow grave, 
 when, suddenly, the heavy tramp of many feet was 
 heard, and the too well-known clang of armor re- 
 sounded among the echoes, and voices stern and 
 hi'h commanded them to come forth from their 
 
 O 
 
 hiding-place, and surrender their arms to the pow- 
 ers of de Moritfort, and the authority of the Church 
 
 " We are not armed," was the quiet reply : " AVC 
 are met here to worship the Lord our Saviour, and 
 to bury our dead." 
 
 " Armed, or unarmed, accursed heretics ; come 
 forth !" 
 
 " Nay, brethn n, wherefore should you shed inno-
 
 THE CAVERN. 159 
 
 cent blood ? We fear not, nor refuse to die, in the 
 cause of our most holy faith ; but we would net 
 that you brought this heavy condemnation on your- 
 selves, by slaying the helpless and the unoffending. 
 We are few in number ; we are stripped of all 
 things ; and what with sorrow, and toil, and cold, 
 and hunger, the brief span of our lives will soon be 
 cut short, without involving you in deeper guilt. 
 Leave us alone : we were praying for you, and 
 would fain see some token that our prayers are ac- 
 cepted." 
 
 A burst of laughter followed this appeal, and 
 several proposed to enter at once, and silence them 
 forever ; but a young knight, who had joined de 
 Montfort recently, and whose conscience was not 
 yet sufficiently seared by the hot iron of Rome, 
 urged the proffering of terms to the suppliants. 
 'They are a miserable handful," said he, "and 
 their feeble tones prove their bodily exhaustion. 
 Let them abjure their heresy, and swear fidelity to 
 the holy see ; and the Church will gain more than 
 by destroying them." 
 
 " Oh, by all means," said a veteran crusader, jeer- 
 ingly : " give them the opportunity of vaunting their 
 steadfastness in rebellion and apostasy, and so invest 
 them with the dignity of martyrs !" 
 
 But the young knight, who commanded the party. 
 
 r advanced to the very entrance of the cavern, ana 
 
 loudly said, " Unhappy wanderers from the only 
 
 true fold, will you renounce your deadly heresies,
 
 160 THE CAVER!*. 
 
 humble yourselves at the footstool <f holy Church, 
 submit to the penances that your crimes have incur, 
 red, and henceforth serve her, in dutiful submission 
 to the righteous will of our sovereign pontiff, the 
 holy father Innocent, and his pious legate, our lord 
 Arnold Amalric ?" 
 
 " We will renounce whatever in our faith and 
 practice can be proved contrary to the will of God, 
 revealed to man in the blessed Scriptures : and we 
 will submit to the Church in all particulars wherein 
 it can be shown that she walks according to the 
 same rule. For the rest, we know what will come 
 upon us. Then welcome death ! welcome glory ev- 
 erlasting in the bosom of our God !" 
 
 A shout of rage and execration, a rush into the 
 little cavern, and the gleam of many weapons flash- 
 ing through its gloom, finished the tragedy. The 
 grave, with pious care dug for one believer, was 
 filled up, and concealed by a pile of slaughtered 
 bodies, all of whom fell unresistingly beneath the 
 murderer's hand. A rivulet of crimson hue tric- 
 kled slowly from the opening, as the perpetrators of 
 this butchery retreated ; and having shown itself, a 
 fearful testimony against their souls, it sank into the 
 humid soil, and was hidden till the great and dread- 
 ful day when earth shall disclose all her slain ; and 
 terrible then will be the revelation of what apostate 
 ^ome hath wrought ! . 
 
 It was bj means si ch as we have described, pur- 
 suing, an/i with -rafty perseverance marking out
 
 THt CAVERZX. 161 
 
 the fugitive prey, that Simon de Montfort CArricd 
 out the plan of the pontiff, who i.imed at no less 
 than the utter destruction of every individual who 
 had imbibed the slightest notions of liberty of con- 
 Kcie.nce ; or learned that there was a standard by 
 which the Church, every Church, must be tried, 
 He could not have employed a fitter instrument, for 
 de Montfort was naturally most cruel ; and po>ver 
 gained by fair means would have been a prize of 
 litile value in his sight, ambitious as he was. The 
 recital of such a massacre as we have described, 
 would kindle up a light in his gloomy eye ; and af- 
 fording him a new plea of special merit at the Vati- 
 can, it strengthened farther his hold on the fair pro 
 vince that became more emphatically his in propor 
 tion as it was laid desolate, and saturated with blood. 
 At present, this man was the sole link connecting 
 Jie successful past with the anticipated future, for 
 which active preparations were being ma-de through- 
 out Europe, by means as disgraceful to the name of 
 Christianity as could be imagined. 
 
 The monks of Citeaux, who most fully merit the 
 distinguishing title of the blood-hounds of the church, 
 had issued in swarms from their cells, or rather from 
 (heir cloisters and refectories, and had spread them- 
 selves in every direction, occupying the pulpits of 
 all nations, and preaching up a new crusade against 
 the Albigenses, as though there were no possible 
 access to heaven but through the blood of these in 
 nocent victims. With the eloquence and power of 
 14*
 
 162 THE CAVEKN. 
 
 demoniacs these cowled recruiting officers set forth 
 the benefits to he derived, here and hereafter, by 
 bearing a hand in the work of slaughter ; and as 
 those whom they addressed were, cilas ! equally un- 
 der the power of the god of this world with them- 
 selves, their appeal was extensively responded to, 
 and their success prodigious. They never preached 
 in vain : the doctrine was too pleasingly accordant 
 with the worst corruptions of the natural heart, and 
 the prize set before their hearers was too tempting, 
 both in its temporal and spiritual aspect, to admit of 
 opposition. Under their unprincipled guidance, a 
 band was being organized wherever the Romish see 
 had a footing, and it seemed problematical whether 
 the devoted land of Provence, with all its neighbor- 
 ing districts where heresy was suspected, would be 
 sufficient for such a host to swallow up. The monks 
 were perfectly content to anticipate such mutual 
 slaughter as should thin the multitude to a number 
 suited to the extent of country : and more than con- 
 tent, if we may judge from their language and pro- 
 ceedings in urging on the terrible conflict. 
 
 It is utterly impossible to conceive what could 
 animate tlu-se men to such a work, unless we attrib- 
 ute it to direct Satanic influence. They knew the 
 land ; they knew it in its days of peace and plenty, 
 of security, and elegance, and ease. They knew 
 that the victims there, for whose blood they were 
 athirst, were alike free from a turbulent spirit, and 
 from the vices that eertainly prevailed among the
 
 THE CAVEBTV. 163 
 
 voluptuous lords under whose sway they lived un 
 molested ; and that even in their religious observ- 
 ances they shunned all ostentatious display of their 
 dissent from Romish practices, and worshipped un- 
 obtrusively, according to their conscience. It is a 
 terrible spectacle of human depravity, this mission 
 of the preachers from Citeaux. In all ages we find 
 him that is born after the flesh persecuting him that 
 is born after the spirit ; and a Cain always hating 
 an Abel, because his own works are evil and his 
 brother's righteous ; but this was more ; this was a 
 flood poured out from the dragon's own mouth, to 
 overwhelm and destroy the only true Church of God. 
 Too successful were the efforts of the monks of 
 Citeaux. They speedily gathered together a fresh 
 band of maddened enthusiasts, whom they had in- 
 duced so implicitly to believe their audacious asser- 
 tions, that probably not one among them entertained 
 a doubt of being at once made clean from all his past 
 offences, and licensed to a new life of unblushing in- 
 
 O 
 
 iquity, with the positive certainty of gaining heaven 
 at last, at the easy price of marching for forty days 
 through a country already conquered and desolated, 
 and putting to death a few poor straggling fugitives, 
 to be dragged from their places of concealment. 
 Such was the aspect of the war in which the second 
 crusading army engaged ; for it was not until they 
 were on their way to join his standard that any thing 
 like a reverse seemed to menace de Montfort ; nor 
 was the discoui igement occasioned by a momentary
 
 *04 THE CAVERN. 
 
 check sufficient to damp the ardor of that fearlesa 
 fanatic. Either through policy or some personal 
 good will, the Pope had listened with favor to Ray. 
 mond of Toulouse, when pleading his own cause in 
 the Vatican ; and it cost the legate no small tiou- 
 ble, eagerly as his efforts were seconded by the 
 fierce Bishop Foulquet, to render nugatory the ad- 
 vantages supposed to be gained by that unhappy 
 nobleman. Meanwhile the king of Arrno-on had 
 
 o o 
 
 broken off all negotiation with de Montfort, declar- 
 ing his hostile feelings so plainly as to infuse new 
 courage into the surrounding lords of the conquered 
 provinces. They combined in a general revolt, and 
 proved so successful in repelling the usurper that, 
 at the end of a few months, the two hundred cities 
 and fortified places in the hands of Simon were re- 
 duced to eight. 
 
 Most welcome, therefore, was the succor supplied 
 by the efforts of the preaching monks of Citeaux ; 
 and most appropriately was it headed : for these 
 troops, enlisted for the express purpose of wholesale, 
 indiscriminate massacre, by the exhortations of 
 priests, were led to the scene of their cruel exploits 
 by a woman. Alice de Montmorency, the wife of 
 de Montfort, headed the fresh host whose approach 
 gladdened the heart of her husband : and thus was 
 the frightful anomaly completed. 
 
 And now was the flood indeed poured forth :u 
 that devoted land ; now, indeed, war, in its fiercest, 
 fellest aspect, raged against the saints of God, and
 
 THE CAVERN. 165 
 
 against nil who conspired to shelter them, and all 
 who hesitated to drag them forth to slaughter. 
 Again must we repeat that the details are those, and 
 thobc alone, left on record by the companions, the 
 eulogists of the aggressors; and therefore only are 
 they credible : not so much from the trustworthy 
 character of the witnesses, as because the exulting 
 tone of joy and thankfulness in which they are nar- 
 rated, exhibits a spirit of murderous bigotry suffi- 
 cient to account for the perpetration of what it were 
 else incredible that man should have committed 
 against his peaceful, unoffending brother man. 
 
 De Montfort cast his mental eye over the wide 
 territory ; and being well informed as to the num- 
 ber, position and strength of the fortresses which he 
 had to reconquer, and those still remaining to be re- 
 duced, he placed himself at the head of his impa- 
 tient levies, and commenced the fierce campaign. 
 One after another he attacked the castles on his 
 route, and having, by the impetuosity of the assault, 
 the terror that his name inspired, and the mysteri- 
 ous permission of Him who thus for a time delivered 
 over his poor flock into the hands of the merciless, 
 carried the place, he dragged forth the remaining 
 inhabitants, hanged them on gibbets in the most 
 conspicuous spots, dismantled or burned the fortress, 
 unless it was sufficiently important to justify his 
 leaving a garrison there, and marched on tc the 
 next post. In this way hd scoured the country with 
 wonderful rapidity ; and when, trusting in then
 
 (66 THE 
 
 righteous cause, or rendered confidt a< t by the streflgth 
 of their bulwarks, the defenders of any place pro* 
 tracted their resistance, he revenged himself for thf! 
 temporary delay by the most horrible cruel ties. 
 Thus, Broin, having a very strong castle, occupied 
 him three days in reducing it ; and no sooner had 
 he captured it than he selected upwards of an bun* 
 dred of the inhabitants, whose eyes, with ferocious 
 barbarity, he tore out, cut off their noses, and hav- 
 ing left a single individual with one eye uninjured, 
 he commanded him to use his sight to guide the 
 wretched company of bleeding sufferers to the next 
 fortress, Cabaret, so to apprize its garrison of what 
 they must expect if they dared to oppose his prog- 
 ress. Death by strangulation on the gallows, or by 
 a blazing pile, was surely preferable to tortures such 
 as these, with the prospect of miserably perishing in 
 lingering helplessness : and thus the Church's cham- 
 pion calculated on immolating her victims at a less 
 expense of time and trouble and possible loss of life 
 to his own host. The castle of Alaric, however, 
 proved a great hindrance, and a severe disappoint- 
 ment too: it held out for eleven days, defying his 
 
 f ' * O 
 
 utmost efforts ; and when at length the place was 
 carried, and imagination already revelled in the 
 blood of the audacious defenders, thev were found 
 to have made good a retreat that phced them be* 
 yond his grasp. Only a small remnant remained foi 
 de Montfort to massacre. Beyond this, he passed 
 Unobstructed for many leagues : not a castle but bad
 
 THE CAVERN. 167 
 
 * 
 
 been deserted, leaving little more than empty walla 
 to reward the plunderers' search. Still the poor 
 blood-stained country smiled in the beauty of its 
 rich fertility : vineyards mantled the hills, and the 
 1 1 ecious olive bore its wonted freight : in the ab- 
 sence of human victims, here was a field for wanton 
 devastation ; and the soldiers of the cross were dis- 
 persed on all sides, rending up by the roots those 
 beauteous vines, and hewing down with their gory 
 weapons the ancient olives, that promised to supply 
 many a succeeding generation. This was accepta- 
 ble work to the master whom they and their leader 
 alike served ; the Spirit who evermore works in the 
 children of disobedience, prompting rebellion where- 
 soever God has given a command. We find a gra- 
 cious and merciful prohibition recorded in scripture, 
 "When thou shalt besiege a city -a long time, in 
 making Avar against it to take it, thou shalt not de- 
 stroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against 
 them ; for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt 
 not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man'a 
 life) to employ them in the siege : only the trees 
 which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, 
 thou shalt destroy and cut them down." Deut. xx. 
 19, 20. 
 
 Here we have the case of a people actually sent 
 
 forth by the Lord to execute his judgments on the 
 
 idolatrous and cruel heathens, requiring wood for 
 
 the necessary operations of a siege, yet strictly 
 
 prohibited from supplying their n<?ed by the de-
 
 168 THE CAVEUN. 
 
 
 
 struetion of a single fruit-tree, even in an enemy's 
 country, because " the tree of the field is man's life :" 
 how dreadful, then, is the spectacle of a body of 
 men professing the religion of the Bible, employed 
 in destroying the whole rich produce of a country, 
 not to aid their hostile operations, not to supply their 
 own present necessities, but simply and avowedly 
 for the very reason assigned by the .Most High 
 Rgainst such an act, because " the tree of the field 
 is man's life." and some famishing wanderers might 
 find the table spread by God's hand in the wilder- 
 ness to support the life which He gave. Such deeds 
 have been done even in our day, and by men nomi- 
 nally protesting against the crimes of Rome : but it 
 is an awful thing thus to make light of what the 
 Lord our God hath commanded ; and the Evil One 
 who exulted in every step of de Montfort's terrible 
 career, is the leader in all such enterprises of cruelty 
 and wrontr- 
 
 O 
 
 We now arrive at a point in the narrative on 
 which the monk Peter has dwelt with more enthu- 
 siastic delight, than even on what he calls the 
 "miracle" that delivered up the innocent victims of 
 Beziers to the knife. Near Narbonne, perched on a 
 lofty rock, and surrounded on all sides by such prec- 
 ipices as rendered it seemingly inaccessible, stood 
 the magnificent castle of Minerva, or Menerbe, famed 
 
 o 
 
 no less for its natural strength than for the courage 
 and fidelity of its lord, Giraud, one of the bravest 
 and most loyal knights owning fealty to the visiount
 
 THE CAVERN. 169 
 
 of Carcassonne. To Raymond Roger he had been 
 ardently attached ; and now that the grave had 
 closed over that champion of the oppressed, Giraud 
 indignantly rejected the assumed authority of his 
 murderer, and held the castle as a duteous vassal of 
 Raymond Trencavel, the infant son of the viscount, 
 and lawful inheritor of his possessions. The faith 
 of the Gospel was, perhaps, more extensively and 
 openly professed here than in any place that de 
 Montfort had yet assailed ; and the prize was, in 
 every point of view, a most tempting one, alike to 
 priest and warrior. The siege was commenced with 
 vigor, and seven weeks of unsuccessful assault had 
 not abated either the fury of the crusaders or the 
 constancy of the garrison ; but that which in one 
 aspect formed their greatest strength, in another 
 proved the worst disadvantage of the besieged. 
 Their rock repelled the enemy ; but it yielded no 
 water-spring to them ; their sole dependence was 
 on cisterns, which at length failed them ; and Gi- 
 raud under a flag of truce proceeded to the camp to 
 treat on the best terms that he could for capitula- 
 tion. De Montfort, dreading the diminution of his 
 host, from which at the end of every forty days 
 many withdrew, while he depended solely on the re- 
 cruiting brothers of Citeaux for adequate supplies in 
 their room, and exceedingly anxious to proceed on 
 his march, granted terms that satisfied Giraud ; and 
 the latter was about to make preparations for sur- 
 rendering, when the legate, who had been absent 
 J5
 
 170 THE CAVERN. 
 
 during 1 he treaty, suddenly returned to the camp; 
 and de Montfort, alarmed by his own boldness, no 
 less suddenly announced that nothing agreed upon 
 during the absence of the legate could be binding 
 until ratified by him. We cannot but cite the lan- 
 guage of the monl? Peter, in describing the (rouble 
 of Arnold on being thus appealed to for the approval 
 of conditions comparatively just and rational. " The 
 abbot was much afflicted. In truth it was his desire 
 that every enemy of Christ should be slain ; but in 
 his character of monk and priest he could not under- 
 take to pronounce their condemnation himself." 
 Here we see, most clearly, the use to which the 
 Romish Church puts its miserable slaves ; among 
 whom were then numbered most of the kings and 
 mighty men of Christendom. With the full devel- 
 opments of the dragon's character upon it, still as a 
 nominally religious system it is compelled to assume 
 the lamblike aspect that prevents its tearing with its 
 own teeth the prey set apart for destruction. Won- 
 derful and fearful is the craft which, to meet the 
 difficulty, has brought such troops of wolves into 
 perfect subjection ; so that on a signal they obey, 
 (and count it meritorious obedience too,) no less 
 their own carnivorous propensities than the will of 
 their masked director ! 
 
 Arnold Almaric immediately hit on a device for 
 the attainment of his object. Knowing that the 
 agreement entered into between the chiefs was as 
 yet only verbal he directed them to sit dowr ipait,
 
 THE CAVERN. 171 
 
 and each 10 furnish him with a correct Britten state- 
 ment of every item in it. Of course, without a 
 miracle, some discrepancy would appear; and on 
 this the unprincipled legate founded a pretext for 
 declaring the whole agreement void, seeing that they 
 were not fully of the same mind as to the terms. 
 Giraud, anxious to succor his people, now suffering 
 from the extremity of thirst, offered to waive his 
 own version, and to accept that of de Montfort ; and 
 this again brought the council of war to a stand, 
 The articles of capitulation, as stated by Simon, 
 were read ; and, here another instance occurred of 
 the deadly spirit animating the breasts of those who 
 assumed the spiritual leadership of men's consciences, 
 as a sure means of commanding their unlimited sub- 
 
 O 
 
 mission in things temporal ; and of the utter oppo- 
 sition of that spirit to every thing that savors of the 
 Gospel of peace. The incident is related by the 
 monk of Vaux-Cernay, with admiring approval of the 
 holy zeal manifested. When that article was read 
 which provided for the safety of any of the Albi- 
 gensic professors who should renounce their faith, a 
 French nobleman, Robert de Mauvaison, mindful of 
 the terms on which his salvation was guaranteed by 
 the church, exclaimed that the pilgrims would never 
 consent to such a clause ; for they had taken the 
 cross, not to show mercy to heretics, but to exter- 
 minate them. He spoke, no doubt, the real feeling 
 of the whole host ; but one which it might be sup- 
 posed the ecclesiastical leaders would, for decency's
 
 172 THE CAVERX. 
 
 sake, have appeared to disavow. Far from it: thfl 
 legate Arnold, immediately soothed the indignant 
 knight, not by representing to him the blessedness 
 of bringing wanderers back to the fold ; not by re- 
 minding him that our Lord has pronounced, " Bles- 
 sed are the merciful," but by bidding him not fear ; 
 for he was satisfied that very few of the heretics 
 would be converted ! This tacit approval on Ar- 
 nold's part of the agreement, together with the com- 
 fortable hope which it held out of no limit being 
 placed on the work of blood, decided the matter : 
 the articles were signed ; and with a heavy heart the 
 gallant Giraud delivered up his fortress to those who 
 thirsted for the slaughter of its defenders. They 
 entered with great solemnity, preceded by the cross 
 and the banners of de Montfort ; while the whole 
 army, led by the priestly choir who in full canonical 
 pomp formed their vanguard, chanted in grand and 
 overwhelming chorus the magnificent Te Dctim, 
 every sublime verse of which speaks condemnation 
 to those who could so fearfully misapply the lan- 
 guage of believing prayer and praise. Alas for 
 those, the light within whom is darkness ! how great, 
 how awfully great is that darkness ! 
 
 Meanwhile, the servants of the Lord, who had in- 
 deed tasted the redemption afforded by his most 
 precious blood, and who knew that their happy lot 
 was to be numbered with his saints in glory ever- 
 lasting, abundantly verified the prediction of the 
 cruel legate N"ot one among them entertained a
 
 THE OAVRRN. 173 
 
 thought of renouncing the faith of their Redeemer. 
 Calm and cheerful in the assured hope of meeting 
 again ere night should have closed upon the earth, 
 in that happy place where night never comes, hus- 
 bands embraced their wives, fathers their daughters, 
 sons their aged mothers, and brothers their bloom- 
 ing sisters, and parted; the males repaired to one 
 large mansion, the females to another; and thus 
 self-accused of their denounced faith, voluntarily 
 separated from their sympathizing fellow-townsmen, 
 prepared as sheep to the slaughter, they kneeled 
 down confessing their sins to the Most High, plead- 
 ing the all-prevailing merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and, with fervent thanksgiving for having^ been 
 
 O O O 
 
 brought to the saving knowledge of Him who of 
 God was made to them wisdom, righteousness, sancti- 
 fication and redemption, they besought the grace that 
 alone could keep them steadfast, immovable, faithful 
 unto death, and meet for the crown of everlasting life. 
 
 O 
 
 And now the heavy tramp, the loud clang of 
 mailed hosts, almost drowned in the thundering 
 hymn of such praise as must be an abomination to 
 the holy and merciful One, whose Name they dared 
 so to blaspheme, bespoke the approach of the drag- 
 on's progeny. First of the motley band of assail- 
 ants, came the Abbot Guy de Vaux Cernay, still 
 active in the fulfilment of that mission which he un- 
 dertook in the recesses of the Vatican seventeen 
 years before. He appeared as a preacher of the 
 faith to men who had fallen into " damnable here- 
 15*
 
 174 THE CAVKUN. 
 
 sies," and commenced the formal exhortation which 
 the terms of the capitulation rendered necessary, 
 thundering forth the terrors of the church's ban on 
 all who dared to dispute her supremacy, and requir- 
 ing an instant recantation of what the Albigenses 
 held to be, as indeed it was, the dootrine of eternal 
 life. He was not allowed to proceed far in his ser- 
 mon : a general cry burst from the indignant hear- 
 ers, who felt that he was speaking blasphemy against 
 the holy Name whcreb} r they were called; "We 
 will have none of your faitli : we have renounced the 
 doctrines of your Roman Church. You labor in 
 vain to move us from the truth which we have em- 
 braced, and from which nothing either in life or in 
 death can move us." Satisfied that no victims would 
 escape from among these devoted believers, Guy 
 left them, and proceeded to the house where the fe- 
 males were in lil<e manner awaiting their fate ; and 
 here he was even more quickly and resolutely cut 
 short in his discourse: they would not hear him : 
 they were full of hope and joy, and eager to lay down 
 their lives for the Gospel. While this was going on, 
 de Montfort, fully partaking in the legate's assurance, 
 collected an immense quantity of firewood, piling it 
 in the most open space of the town. He then visited 
 in turn the two assemblies, addressing them more 
 briefly than the Abbot had done, in words that could 
 no be misunderstood. He pointed to the heap of 
 dry faggots, on which it was counted a sacred priv- 
 ilege for the noblest of the land to east an addi
 
 TO CAVERN. 175 
 
 .ional stick, and in his usual dark, stern manner 
 said, ' Be converted to the Catholic faith, or ascend 
 this pile." Not one among his hearers flinched, or 
 quailed, or gave token of a hesitating thought ; fire 
 was applied to the heap, and a mighty conflagration 
 blazed up to heaven. Then might be seen the eager 
 rush of armed men, each hoping to seize some help- 
 less victim, and to propitiate GOD, yea even our own 
 GOD, by casting the struggling form of decrepit age, 
 or blooming youth, or terrified childhood into the 
 burning gulf but most of them were disappointed 
 in the hope ; for with light step all who could do 
 no glided by, and cast themselves into the fire as 
 into a glorious chariot provided to bear them tc 
 their bright and blessed home. With loud voices 
 they commended their souls to Him for whom they 
 counted it all joy to suffer this terrible martyrdom 
 and thus did a hundred and forty human bodies 
 perish from the sight of man, in a single pile of fire, 
 kindled from the materials of their own peaceful 
 homes. Yet three were left of the women : while 
 on their way to the fire, a noble lady, mother of the 
 lord of Montmorenci, had them forcibly arrested, 
 and held as lookers-on upon a scene, the horrors of 
 which were sufficient to deprive them of reason ; 
 while a forced or an unconscious assent to what was 
 demanded, enrolled them in the list of apostates, 
 from which, and not from the book of life, we must 
 fervently hope that their names were subsequently 
 Hotted out : for those were days when the word of
 
 176 THE CAVERN. 
 
 our Lord was fulfilled to the uttermost extent of its 
 Hvvfui import ; " He that findeth his life shall losa it ; 
 and he that loseth his life for my saLe shall find it." 
 
 Such was the termination of the seven weeks' 
 siege, which had doubtless been protracted to ripen 
 many souls for glory. The smouldering fires died 
 away, and the undistinguishable ashes of what had 
 but an hour before been vigorous with life, and 
 bright in beauty, were borne on the winds of hea- 
 ven to be seen no more. The spirits, set free from 
 mortal fetters, went to the presence of their re- 
 deeming God, there to meet and to rejoice with the 
 multitude who had, like themselves, come out of 
 great tribulation, with robes washed white, not in 
 their own innocency, but in the blood of the Lamb; 
 with them to anticipate the day of reunion with 
 their purified bodies, changed by the power of ele- 
 mental fire into imperceptible dust : again to be 
 changed into the likeness of Christ's glorious body, 
 according to that mighty working, whereby He is 
 able to subdue even all things to himself. We la- 
 ment now their past sufferings ; we rejoice in their 
 present happiness : ere long we shall see them, a 
 magnificent army of glorified saints, descending with 
 their Lord to experience the literal fulfilment of a 
 too-much neglected promise, " The meek shall 
 inherit the earth." 
 
 The angels of God having borne his slaughtered 
 ones to His bosom, the spirits of darkness brooded 
 still over their wretched prey, who watched with
 
 THE CAVERN. 177 
 
 horrible satisfaction the crumbling away of each 
 human cinder into dust, and raised again the mock- 
 ing hymn of praise, and looked forward to the mor- 
 row's march that should conduct them to new vic- 
 tims. And is this, again we ask with solemn ear- 
 nestness, ns in the presence of God, Is this Chris- 
 tianity ? We know no one, scarcely even among 
 the adherents of Rome in our day, who would dare 
 to answer Yes. They disown such deeds, as form- 
 ing any part of their religious system, attributing 
 them solely to the spirit of the barbarous age in 
 which they were perpetrated : yet examine a little 
 farther, and it will be found that, of this, the mid- 
 dle ages as it is called, not only Romanists, but 
 some who believe themselves to be Protestants, 
 habitually speak as of the most glorious era of the 
 Church ! There is a net of deadly texture fast 
 closing around us, and it behooves us narrowly to 
 examine the subtle meshes as they come in view. 
 The crusades were a legitimate carrying out, by a 
 party then powerful enough to do its bidding, of 
 the unchanged principles, the consistent doctrines, 
 and of the now existing laws of the papacy. As 
 we proceed, this may become more apparent ; but it 
 is a fact, the overlooking of which is at this moment 
 hurrying on a crisis that man cannot, perhaps, avert 
 but for which the Church of Christ must be pre- 
 pared, by arming themselves with the like mind as 
 their suffering Master ; and as their b~e;hren who of 
 old wore slain, u many more will b.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE LADY OF LAVAUR. 
 
 THE unsparing cruelty of the crusaders, their bar- 
 barous massacre, by the most painful and ignomini- 
 ous deaths, of such as were compelled to surrender to 
 them ; and the tortures that sometimes, as in the case 
 of the inhabitants of Brom, the victims were left to 
 linger under, all combined, with the consciousness 
 of a just and holy cause, to nerve the hands of those 
 who held the strong castle of Termes, a powerful 
 frontier fortress on the borders of Roussillon. This 
 was the next point of attack in the order of march 
 laid down for the great locust army, whose glory it 
 was to turn the comparative Eden of a most lovely 
 and smiling country into a waste howling wilderness, 
 defiled by blood, and deformed by every species of 
 savage outrage. 
 
 Raymond of Termes was a warrior no less brave 
 than Giraud of Minerve ; and warned by the fate of 
 that noble, he proved more inflexible, rejecting every 
 proposal for capitulation, even when the periodical 
 diminution of Simon's army rendered him desirous 
 of cb taining possession on terms really favorable to
 
 THE LADY OF LAVAUR. 179 
 
 the besieged. The latter had witnessed too many 
 recent instances of the measure of faith that Rome 
 keeps with those whom she calls heretics, to believe 
 that any thing better than a snare could lurk be- 
 neath the fairest proffers of her emissaries. Termes, 
 therefore, held out for four months, baffling every 
 device, repulsing every attack, and rejecting every 
 offer of the enemy. During this period the army 
 underwent the usual mutations ; large bodies of 
 men, who had already satiated their cruelty and ra- 
 pine on Minerve, dispersed from before the Avails of 
 Termes, on the expiration of their forty days, to lay 
 uppn the idol-shrines of their false worship the 
 blood-stained trophies won in this unholy war. 
 Their places were supplied by others, from the still 
 unexhausted masses of fanaticism in France, from 
 Germany, from England, and many other places 
 where the preaching friars were displaying new 
 zeal, as the success of de Montfort inflated their 
 pride, and raised their hope of ultimately and ef- 
 fectually extinguishing the light of the Gospel. Of 
 these new levies, not a few fulfilled their stipulated 
 term of service before the walls, and left them still 
 unbroken ; but from every new reinforcement de 
 Muntfort swelled his band of permanent followers ; 
 men who, from innate love of slaughter, or from 
 greediness to share the spoils of a final conquest, 
 were willing to march under his standard to the end 
 of the war. A war waged by Satan himself against 
 the Lord's heritage ; but which de Mentfwt now so
 
 180 THE LADY OK tAVAUR. 
 
 persevoringly prosecuted from motives of worldly 
 ambition. 
 
 Still Termes held out : the cisterns, their only re- 
 source, had been filled by the rains, while the heat 
 of summer operated prejudicially on the soft water 
 so collected. Nevertheless, the tainted beverage 
 was eagerly drank ; and again, before the winter 
 cold set in were the reseivoirs in like manner replen- 
 ished. It proved, however, the occasion of such se- 
 vere and fatal disease among the garrison, that while 
 their numbers daily decreased, the physical strength, 
 and with it, no doubt, the mental energy of the sur- 
 vivors rapidly failed. A longer defence was con- 
 sidered hopeless ; but the idea of yielding them- 
 se'.vcs to the pitiless conquerors was not to be tol- 
 erated. Their resolve was taken ; preparations were 
 cautiously and noiselessly made ; and in the dead of 
 a November's night, the exhausted company silently 
 abandoned their stout bulwarks, passed unobserved 
 the first line of intrenchment, and hastily separated, 
 seeking the mountain-passes into Catalonia. But 
 such a movement could not long remain undiscov- 
 ered : their flight was made known in the camp, and 
 instantly the crusaders rushed to arms. With mu- 
 tual exhortation they cheered each other on to the 
 pursuit : that enemies who, in addition to their crimes 
 against the Romish Church, had already cost them 
 so much personal toil and loss of time, should es- 
 oaue with their lives, would be a stigma at once on 
 their fidelity to the: faith and pn thsir military prgw-
 
 THE LADY OF [,AVAUR. 181 
 
 ess. The army was quietly pressing on the foot- 
 stops of the disheartened fugitives, Ihe greater num- 
 ber of whom they overtook; and at once, men, wo- 
 men, and children were heaped in an indiscriminate 
 pile of slaughter, wheresoever the murderous wea- 
 pon could reach them. Raymond, the lord of 
 Termes, was captured alive, with some others, whom 
 they wished de Montfort to have the glory and the 
 high merit of burning, and otherwise torturing to 
 death. They had their desire with regard to the 
 inferior class ; but Raymond's sin had been top 
 grievous to be so speedily expiated. The merciless 
 Simon refused him the death that he would have 
 hailed as a boon, and remembering a deep dark 
 dungeon under a tower in Carcassonne, he conveyed 
 him thither, to endure years of hopeless captivity 
 in its most cruel form. Of him we know no more 
 than that he suffered for defending those who knew 
 and loved the truth ; and if that truth had also 
 made him spiritually free, his dungeon was a place 
 of liberty and light ; for Christ was there. 
 
 At this distance of time, and with nought to guide 
 us save such books as their murderous enemies have 
 written, we cannot form a correct judgment of indi- 
 vidual cises like this: but there is ground for irnny 
 a cheering hope concerning thousands of vict ms 
 who were not called to a voluntary martyrdom like 
 those of Minerve ; a hope which the great day of 
 revelation may abundantly confirm. Then, face to 
 face, they mus meet, the slayers and the slain ; and 
 16
 
 182 THE LADY OF LAVAl/R. 
 
 lie who was present, marking all, discerning every 
 thought of every heart, and tracing every action to 
 i;s most secret spring, will award a judgment, the 
 tremendous issuis of which the heart of man may 
 well tremble to contemplate. 
 
 War in its most dreadful form had now raged 
 against the Albigenses for more than a year and a 
 half. It was in the Spring of 1209 that the first 
 army marched upon the territories of Raymond 
 Roger; and Termes fell in November, 1210. Far- 
 ther resistance seemed to be abandoned by the 
 wretched inhabitants of neighboring towns and cas- 
 tles : no sign of opposition was seen ; but on every 
 side helpless fugitives were vainly seeking to escape 
 the hands of the triumphant enemy, to whom it was 
 mere sport to pursue them, singly or in groups, and 
 to put them to death on the spot, or else to drag 
 them to the camp, to refresh their spirits, and reani- 
 mate the zeal of the assembled host, by the specta- 
 cle of a slow burning. All seemed to augur imme- 
 diate and utter destruction to the provinces ; even 
 the king of Arragon, attached as he had long been 
 to the cause, and nearly allied both to the Count of 
 Toulouse and to Raymond Roger, was beguiled by 
 the plausibility of de Montfort, and to a great ex- 
 tent, placed himself in his hands. Simon, however, 
 was too much inflated by pride, and too conscious of 
 the immense power that he wielded in the dail\ r aug- 
 menting host of fierce crusaders who poured in on 
 every s'de, to u ~>e his advantage prudently. Ho
 
 THE LAI Y OF LAVAUR. 183 
 
 treated the king of Arragon and the Count of Tou- 
 louse with the same overbearing insolence : pro- 
 claimed them alike rebels against the supreme power 
 of Rome, and even attempted to place them under 
 arrest in the city of Aries, whither they had been 
 invited to negotiate with the lordly legate and the 
 usurping chief. This of course, renewed the spirit 
 of indignant opposition in the bosoms of the insulted 
 parties ; but de Montfort cared little for any show of 
 future resistance : the preaching firebrands of Citeaux 
 sent him in new levies ; and in all the pride of as- 
 sured success he marched, in the following spring, 
 on Cabaret, where a stout defence was anticipated ; 
 instead of which the citadel, hitherto impregnable 
 by hostile power, was thrown open to him, and 
 formed the first of a series of unresisted triumphs, 
 along the line of mountainous fortresses that frowned 
 upon the rugged passes connecting the province of 
 Carcassonne with that of Toulouse. Here, the wily 
 commander, feeling the value of such rapid advances 
 *upon a more important scene of action, restrained 
 the barbarity of his followers, and exhibited a show 
 of leniency to those who submitted, well calculated 
 to encourage the practice of unconditional surren- 
 der. It would be easy, when the mighty strong- 
 holds of truth were subdued, and no refuse left for 
 
 O 
 
 the scattered few, to return and execute vengeance 
 on all who shoxild retain even a semblance of relisj- 
 
 O 
 
 bus liberty. 
 
 Thus, - without hindrance and without loss, the
 
 1^4 THE LADY OF LAVAUR. 
 
 dark unbroken m?-sses cf armed destroyers ap- 
 proached the populous city of Touloase, the favored 
 refuge of God's people ; the garden where no hand, 
 human or infernal, had yet succeeded in eradicating 
 tlie growth of plants watered from above, and yield- 
 ing the increase that God alone could give. It was 
 etill some leagues distant, and braving their advance 
 stood the solitary but massive castle of Laraur. This 
 was known to be in the possession of a woman, a 
 widow, whose timidity no doubt the crusaders ex- 
 pected speedily to overawe ; but the lady Guiraude 
 was an openly professing follower of the truth as it 
 is in Jesus ; a bold separatist from the authority and 
 from the errors of Home ; and she had made her 
 stout castle a place of refuge and security to as 
 many of her fellow-believers as it would contain. 
 She had also with her a brother, both in the flesh 
 and in the faith, a brave knight named Aimery de 
 Montreal, whose possessions had been seized by de 
 Montfort, while he with eighty other faithful knights, 
 happily escaped, and now assisted to man the walls 
 of Lavaur. In all the province, excepting its capital 
 city, there was not a place more confided in by the 
 persecuted flock than this castle. Immensely strong, 
 perfectly fortified on all sides, stored with abundance 
 of provisions, ammunition, and whatsoever could 
 contribute to its defence, while a people who openly 
 worshipped God in spirit and in truth kept watch 
 and ward within, it was a point of most thrilliug 
 inteiest to the flock around: of most sanguinary
 
 THfc LADY OF LAVAUR, 1&5 
 
 eagerness 01. the part of the wolves that invaded 
 them. Thy very fact of its being the heritage of a 
 widow who served God, inspired confidence in the 
 bosoms of those who trusted in Him. But His way 
 is sometimes in the sea, and his path in the deep 
 waters, and his footsteps are not known, 
 
 Toulouse being so near, and Count Raymond again 
 in opan excommunication, and therefore naturally 
 looked to as preparing to defend himself and his 
 subjects from the agressor, application was made to 
 him for further supplies by the garrison of Lavaur ; 
 but the wretched man ventured not to afford them* 
 At the same time the infamous bishop of the place, 
 Fouquet, assembled the members of his own com- 
 munion, and in a fiery harangue represented to them 
 the vengeance they were bringing down on them- 
 selves by continuing so far undistinguished from th 
 heretics of the place. He ceased not until he had 
 enrolled a company of five thousand citizens of Tou* 
 louse, and marched them off as a reinforcement to 
 swell the enormous army already engaged in besieg- 
 ing Lavaur. This is one of the most fearful instances 
 of that positive thirst for human blood, for the blood 
 of compatriots, of neighbors and kinsmen, which 
 forms the most glaring feature of Popery during 
 which was its age of triumphant, uncontrolled do- 
 minion, and unrestrained development of its actual 
 character. That five thousand men should be found 
 within the walls of a city to volunteer their needless 
 aid in slaughtering their very brethren, around whom 
 16*
 
 J0 THE LADY OF LAVAUR. 
 
 a host countless for multitude, and terrible in destruc- 
 tive might were swarming, and all for the merito- 
 rious piety of the deed, and the heavenly reward to 
 be reaped for it, invests this mystery of iniquity with 
 a hideousness that humanity can scarcely bear to 
 look on. And this was done in the name of Jesus ! 
 This was done, with loud invocations of the Holy 
 Spirit ! Truly She who could bring such thirjgs to 
 pass, enlisting in the work men of every country, 
 had made all nations drunk with the wine of the 
 wrath of her fornication ; truly was she, and is she, 
 the Mother of abominations : and woe to those who 
 are partakers of her sins, and shall receive of her 
 plagues. 
 
 The siege of Lavaur proved a more arduous work 
 than the assailants had anticipated ; and its prog- 
 ress was also rendered remarkable by events that 
 then occurred. Raymond VI., the miserable slave 
 of cowardly superstition, was not ashamed again to 
 appear as a suppliant for Savor at the hands of the 
 two tyrants, Simon and Arnold ; but all his conces- 
 sions proved vain. Contempt, insult, and the avowal 
 of a determination to take possession -of his widt 
 and valuable dominions, so soon as their present en- 
 terprise should have terminated, were all that he 
 met in return for his advances : until the mere in- 
 stinct of self-preservation wrought on him to do what 
 he ought long before to have decided on upon far 
 nobler grounds. He ceased to wear the semblance 
 of that abject submission which had tendered him
 
 Tttfi-LADV Of LAVATT".. 181 
 
 to wretchedly contemptible alike to friend and foe ; 
 and applying as chief of Toulouse to the indepen- 
 dent Iord8 of the surrounding provinces, of Cora* 
 tninges, Foix, Beam, Aquitaine, with others who 
 were involved in the charge of sheltering the Albi- 
 gensic believers, he formed a strong alliance with 
 them. The first overt act of rebellion upon which 
 he ventured consisted in an open prohibition, ad- 
 dressed to his own subjects, against furnishing sup- 
 plies to the besiegers' camp : and, thus committed, 
 he showed signs of returning resolution that cheered 
 many a drooping heart among the people whom he 
 had been heretofore so ready to sell to destruction 
 at the price of a little personal favor from the Court 
 of Rome. 
 
 It may be doubted whether de Montfort felt any 
 concern at this proceeding, which furnished him 
 with an additional pretext for shedding man's blood : 
 and the knowledge that six thousand fresh troops 
 were even then on the march from Germany to aid 
 his arms, and expected shortly to arrive before La- 
 vaur, increased his confidence. These troops, how- 
 ever, arrived not : between the Tarn and the Ga- 
 ronne their steps were arrested by an ambuscade of 
 chosen men, commanded by the gallant Count of 
 Foix; and they fell in one wide mass of slaughtei 
 beneath the arms of those whom they came to in- 
 vade, to despoil, and to massacre. This event, 
 combined with serious distress for provisions, arising 
 from Count Raymond's prohibition, exasperated de
 
 IBfi Tttfi LAM OP LAVAtm. 
 
 Montfort and led him to renewed efforts for the ac- 
 complishment of what he had in hand. Machines, 
 long in use amon.? Eastern nations, but as yet un- 
 known to the peaceful dwellers of those European 
 Valleys, were brought to aid his operations. Simon 
 had no difficulty in directing their formation, well 
 practised as he was in the work of destruction as a 
 veteran crusader in the Holy Land, and surrounded 
 by knights and soldiers who had served there. In- 
 deed the original crusades were now nearly aban- 
 doned for the lighter service of a slaughtering ex- 
 pedition of forty days to so comparatively short a 
 distance from home : the same recompense being 
 guaranteed as for the distant, hazardous exploit of 
 a campaign in Palestine : that is to say, pardon of 
 sin, peace of conscience, justification before God, 
 and eternal life ! 
 
 The machine with which these modern Romans 
 made the most fatal impression on the walls of La- 
 vaur was not much dissimilar from those used by 
 their pagan predecessors against the ancient city of 
 our God. A great wooden tower having been con- 
 structed in the camp, and cased in raw hides to 
 protect it from the action of fire, it was advanced 
 to the foot of the fortress ; and on opening it, per- 
 pendicularly a huge iron beam was projected by the 
 united strength of many men, the extremity of which 
 was furnished with great iron claws, resembling 
 those of a tiger or a cat, (from the latter animal it 
 took its name,) and these being applied with all
 
 THE LADY OF LAVAUR. 189 
 
 possible force to the wall, the stones were seized, 
 separated, torn out, and in most cases a breach soon 
 effected. In the present instance, however, when 
 de Montfort had completed his " cat," and brought 
 it, under a formidable escort of armed men, to the 
 walls of the Protestant fortress, the width of the 
 ancient ditches was found so great as to baffle all 
 nis skill, defying the approach of those tremendous 
 iron claws. To obviate this, he employed all his 
 army in laboring to fill up the moat: they cast in 
 daily prodigious masses of earth, stones, and what- 
 ever might raise the level of the excavation : but 
 every night the defenders quietly issued from their 
 subterranean passages, clearing before daybreak the 
 accumulated rubbish. This siege greatly resembled 
 in some points that of Jerusalem in the days of 
 Titus ; and de Montfort seemed to take a lesson 
 from the records of that war ; for he had recourse 
 to the expedient of filling these communications 
 with smoke and flame, during the intervals of the 
 work ; thus driving back the besieged, and leaving 
 his own unhallowed labors unimpaired. By such 
 means he filled the ditches, formed a secure footing 
 for his infernal machine, and tore away enough of 
 the bulwarks to effect a practicable breach. 
 
 The prey was now within their grasp ; the pious 
 widow, and her injured brother, and all to whom 
 her castle had been a refuge were at their mercy 
 Such mercy! Arnold A malric, it appears, was ab- 
 sent ; for the bishop of C^urdien officiated as his
 
 190 THK LADY OF LAVA JR. 
 
 representative: and assuredly the legate wo ild not 
 willingly have been away from such a feast of death. 
 This man, with all his fellow-bishops, priests, and 
 every ecclesiastic in the host, arrayed in the gor- 
 geous finery of their pontifical habits, formed a grand 
 procession, shouting forth, as the knights mounted 
 the breach, the famous hymn that, despite its high 
 intrinsic piety and poetry, their horrible prostitution 
 has almost rendered hateful to Christian ears : Veni 
 Creator Spiritus. Simon de Montfort meanwhile 
 earnestly entreated the furious assailants to restrain 
 their present vengeance and to take all alive, that 
 the priests of the living God might not be deprived 
 of their promised joys. He was obeyed : Aimery 
 was first dragged forth, with his faithful companions 
 in arms ; and de Montfort directed them to be forth- 
 with hanged upon a gallows already erected for that 
 purpose, but which, not being well fixed, gave way 
 with the weight of Count Aimery ; and to avoid the 
 delay of repairing it he commanded the other eighty 
 to be butchered at once on the spot, an order re- 
 ceived and obeyed with no little avidity by the sol- 
 diers of the Church. The lady Guiraude was then 
 brought, and received her sentence, to be cast into 
 a pit, or well, which was found in the place, and to 
 be buried under a heap of stones. The inhabitants 
 of the Castle were then collected ; and, says Peter 
 de Vaux-Cernay, " the pilgrims burned them alive 
 frith inexpressible joy." 
 
 Now, as it is so much the practice in our day
 
 THE LADY OF LAVAtfK 191 
 
 amor.g learned scribes and reverend divines of a par 
 ticular school, not only to " sptak gently of our sis- 
 ter's fall," meaning Babylon the Great, but in an 
 especial manner, and for very special ends, to gloss 
 over and to eulogize the doings of the Romish 
 power, at the period of which we treat, blackening 
 without mercy the characters of God's persecuted 
 flock, and accusing all who present a fair and ungar- 
 bled statement of facts, of falsification and misquota- 
 tion, we shall just place before our readers the ex- 
 pressions used by the monk Peter, already so often 
 cited, and which we copy, verbatim et literatim, from 
 a copy of his famous book in our own possession, 
 bearing title, " Historia Albigensium, et sacri belli 
 in eos, Anno M.C.C.IX. duce et principe Simone a 
 Monteforti, deiu Tolosano comite, rebus strenue 
 gestis clarissimo. Auctore PETRO, coenobij Vallis 
 Sarnensis ord. Cisterciencis in Parisiensi dioecesi 
 monacho, cruceatse huius militiae teste oculato." It 
 bears date, 'Trecis,' 1615. 
 
 In the 52nd chapter, the monkish eye-witness, 
 who went as the special scribe and eulogist of Guy, 
 the abbot of his order, thus writes. " Mox eductus 
 est de castro Aimericus de quo supra tetigirnus que 
 fuerat domimis mentis regalis & alii milites usque 
 ad octoginta nobilis ante Comes proposuit, quod 
 oivmes pattibulo suspederetur, sed cum Aimericus 
 qui erat maior inter illos suspensus fuisset, cadenti- 
 bus furcis, quae prae nimia festim bene non fuerant 
 terne affixai, natione videns comes quod raora magna
 
 192 THE LADT OF LAVAUR. 
 
 fieret, alios occidi prsecipit, ^uos peregrini anidis 
 sime suscipientes occiderunt citius in eodem loco. 
 
 Dominam etiam eastri quse erat Aimerici 
 
 & haeretica pessima, in puteum projeetam, cornea 
 lapidibus obtui fecit innumerabiles etiam hfereticos. 
 peregrini nostri cum ingenti gaudio eombusserunt.' 
 
 The revolting expression, which we have given in 
 the language of the original work, descriptive of the 
 joyous feelings that animated the so-called Chris- 
 tian host, while gazing on the tortures of their fel- 
 low-creatures, writhing in those burning flames, is 
 not of solitary occurrence in the narrative of the 
 Monk Peter ; who, being present on these occasions, 
 and writing under the direction of his patronizing 
 Abbot, Guy, may be held as carefully describing 
 the butcheries that he records, just as it was con- 
 sidered desirable that the world should view them. 
 He uses the same, or exactly similar epithets on 
 many other occasions, declaring that the pilgrims 
 burned the " heretics" with great joy : with the 
 utmost joy : with unspeakable joy : only varying 
 the phrases without altering the sense of the words ; 
 and perhaps representing occasionally a higher dt 
 gre of delight, as the number of victims was greater, 
 or their constant devotion to the faith which they 
 held more conspicuous than usual. 
 
 It is impossible to read the words without being 
 struck by the fearful accuracy of the inspired de- 
 scription of papal Rome, a shameless woman,
 
 THE L ID'f OF LAVAttR. 103 
 
 DRUNKEN with the blood of the saints, and with the 
 blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Wluit but the mad- 
 ness of intoxication could produce so fiendish a joy ? 
 What but the frantic mirth of drunkenness give 
 veil to such a laugh, such a shout of wild exultation 
 as responded to the dying groan of the strong man, 
 the shriek of the tender woman, and the shrill, pierc- 
 ing cry of the agonized babe, as -each coiled up and 
 shrivelled amid the blazing fires or, more appalling 
 still, that yell of satanic delight, drowning the voice 
 of prayer and praise that in many, very many in- 
 stances issued from lips that could utter no groan, 
 no cry, on the very threshold of heaven, with all its 
 unutterable glories opening to their view ! Many 
 saw beyond the flames and smoke, obscuring as they 
 did the material firmament, that vision which burst 
 on Stephen amid the shower of stones : and the in- 
 tercessory prayer of the proto-martyr for his mur- 
 derers burst from many a tongue, parching in the 
 cruel fires, that were to be succeeded by the cool, 
 refreshing drops of the river that proceeds from the 
 throne of God and of the Lamb. Nowhere shall we 
 behold a more striking display of the Church of 
 Christ in the midst of the synagogue of Satan ; of 
 the Bride, the Lamb's wife, persecuted unto death 
 bv the great harlot who had dared to usurp he! 
 name and place, than by the side of a pile where 
 the bodies of the Albigenses crumbled into ashes, 
 while the followers of Rome stood round, and in the 
 17
 
 194 THE LADY OK LAVATJR. 
 
 6erce excitement of spiritual drunkenness, mockeu 
 their dying- pangs. 
 
 The reduction of Lavaur was a very important 
 event : it must be borne in mind that the enor- 
 mous host who followed de Montfort were neither 
 .accompanied by a provisioning- department, nor did 
 they receive pay in any other shape than that most 
 intangible coin wherein Great Babylon carries on 
 her traffic in the souls of men. In this peculiar 
 branch of her commerce, she receives from them 
 what God lias, in an especial manner, laid claim to ; 
 they serve her with all the heart, all the mind, all 
 the soul, and all the strength ; a service including 
 the whole man, not only in his affections, intellec- 
 tual capacities, and spiritual devotedness, but also 
 with the muscular powers of the bodily frame, set 
 apart to do her bidding, and rendered wholly sub- 
 servient to her will. In return for this substantial 
 tribute, she gives her own verbal security for all 
 that the Lord God alone can dispense to His crea- 
 tures : she guarantees an oblivion of sin, a blotting 
 out of the record that is against the sinner, not with 
 the blood of Christ, but by means of some mysteri- 
 ous agent of her own invention and substitution ; 
 she shows a key, which she avers to be that of par- 
 adise, and passes her promise to admit by its power 
 the soul of her wretched customer to everlasting 
 communion with God and with His saints. What 
 more can they require? the very service demanded 
 of thea in this instance was the invasion of a pecu-
 
 THE LADV OF LAV A OR. 195 
 
 liarly rich and fruitful country, and the slaughter ol 
 its inhabitants, by which their possessions would, of 
 course, fall into the hands of the victorious survnors; 
 and no marvel that a thought of military pay 01 
 magazines never entered the head of either party in 
 this transaction. Two objects alone occupied the 
 mind of the crusader: slaughter first; because that 
 was the stipulated price of his soul's salvation ; and 
 next plunder, without which his bodily wants could 
 _not be supplied. The whole system is one of fearful 
 sublimity in the wicked wisdom that cometh from 
 beneath : it caused an Apostle who had witnessed 
 the mightiest miracles that attested the truth of 
 Christianity, and who himself was largely gifted 
 with a miracle-working power, to wonder with great 
 admiration ; and well may it cause us to tremble 
 and to weep when we again behold it at our very 
 doors, spinning afresh its poisonous web, and grad- 
 ually inclosing in that coil of death those whom we 
 have known and loved, with whom we have taken 
 sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of 
 God in company ; but who now leave the pure wor- 
 ship of that house to prostrate themselves in abom- 
 inable idolatry before idols of wood and stone, and 
 gods of wheaten bread ! 
 
 We must, however, return to Lavaur, as having 
 formed a most important step in the advance of the 
 invaders ; for, left as they at all times were to for- 
 age for themselves, lying before a fortress when tha 
 country all around had been exhausted of its supplies,
 
 196 THE LADY OF LAVATTR. 
 
 and pillage could find nothing to grasp, was very 
 discouraging, In the present instance, Count Ray 
 mond's bold prohibition of the succors on which they 
 had confidently reckoned, as the natural result of his 
 notorious dread of Rome, almost led to mutiny in the 
 hungry camp ; and a r.ew series of reverses menaced 
 de Montfort. All was now at an end ; the garrison, 
 and all the inhabitants of Lavaur, were murdered , 
 the place itself plundered of whatever remained, and 
 with fresh courage the destroying multitude moved 
 on to new outrages against the Lord's poor flock. 
 
 It was now that the storm so long gathering 
 round him, and so often averted at the expense of 
 every honorable and manly feeling, fell upon Count 
 Raymond. He had never yet experienced any direct 
 attack on his possessions, although the sentence of 
 excommunication so repeatedly renewed against him, 
 placed them within the grasp of any successful as- 
 sailant, and his life at the mercy of any bold assas- 
 sin. De Montfort, stung by the inconvenience that 
 he and his troops had lately suffered from Ray- 
 mond's refusal of supplies, marched them at once to 
 the castle of Montjoye, which belonged to the Count 
 of Toulouse personally. Defence not being deemed 
 practicable, the garrison forsook it ; and no other 
 gratification could the crusaders obtain here, than 
 the very insufficient one of demolishing stone walls. 
 They razed it to the ground ; but no hi; nan victim 
 appeared, to reward their eager quest for blood. 
 Next in their each stood another castle of Rav-
 
 THE LADY OP LAVAVA. 197 
 
 /nond's- Cassero ; and this also was found indefen- 
 sible against the fierce multitude who surrounded 
 it ; but the inhabitants had no way of escape, and 
 they capitulated. No scruple of course was made 
 of seizing upon as many as would afford an accept- 
 able feast to the eyes of the conquerors : they took 
 some sixty, probably the greater proportion of all 
 whom the castle contained : and on the charge, 
 whether just or not, of holding the doctrines of 
 the Gospel, they cast them upon a blazing pile of 
 firewood: in the words of Peter the monk, "The 
 soldiers, seizing nearly sixty heretics, burned them 
 with infinite joy." Or, as the original stands, " sed 
 cum nee vinum convertere potuisset exierunt a cas- 
 tro, peregrini autem arripientes htereticos ferme sex- 
 aginta eos cum ingenti gaudio combusserunt." The 
 character given by our Lord to his disciples in this 
 world, is that of " lambs among wolves." Whose 
 disciples were these, so mysteriously and ferociously 
 enacting the part of wolves among lambs ? 
 
 The march proceeded ; castle after castle, and vil- 
 lage after village was swept down and overwhelmed 
 by this terrible flood. The latter, of course, like 
 the insulated cottages of those bright valleys and 
 fertile plains, fell at once beneath the murderous 
 blow ; the fortified places were surrendered with 
 the usual sanguinary consequences, unless their in- 
 mates found means of privately escaping during the 
 enemy's appioach. Spring had returned, and arth 
 would fain have put on her wonted beauties ; but 
 17*
 
 IflS THE LADY OP LAVAffft, 
 
 all was forlorn ; the song of the husbandmati ^ad 
 ceased, and the vine-dresser's hand was mouldering 
 on the soil that once he loved to deck, or borne in 
 imperceptible ashes on the breeze that should fan 
 his cheek. Snring passed, and summer arrived, 
 only to make more plain the fearful change that had 
 passed over the land ; while, fired by the fame of 
 his deeds, and doubly assured of his final success, 
 a vast body of reinforcements, principally from Ger- 
 many, arrived to increase the terrors of the deso- 
 lating army ; and de Montfort resolved on seizing 
 the grandest prize that he had yet attempted, even 
 the magnificent capital of the country, the power- 
 ful, wealthy, and to all appearance impregnable city 
 of Toulouse. 
 
 Here, it will be remembered, the turbulent bishop, 
 Fouquet, had enrolled five thousand men for de 
 Montfort's service, during the siege of Lavaur. 
 They had not yet returned, but were summoned by 
 him to do so; and in the meanwhile he augmented 
 this " white company," as he called it, to a very 
 formidable body ; for the great bulk of citizens iff 
 Toulouse still professed allegiance to Rome, and wil- 
 lingly listened to the vehement asseverations of theii 
 bishop, that all the calamities which had fallen on 
 tlieir country, nnd which now menaced themselves, 
 were the righteous visitations of the Most High, in 
 punishment for their sinful connivance at the abode 
 of notorious heretics among them, and the indiffer- 
 ence with which tl ey regarded the daring rebellion
 
 THE LADY OP LAVAVn. 199 
 
 of these reprobates ag linst the sovereign authority 
 of the Church. To this he failed not to add, that 
 the prince whom they served was himself lying un- 
 der the ban of that Church ; and thus he represented 
 to them the necessity of purging out from among 
 them the transgressors, and of bringing all things 
 once more into subjection to the pontiff. By such 
 means be organized a very considerable band of in- 
 fluential men, who having bound themselves by oath 
 to pursue all heretics to death, set up a tribunal, in- 
 dependent of lawful authority, where they acted 
 both as accusers and judges, the principal charges 
 on which they arraigned their victims being those of 
 heresy and usury. From judgment they proceeded 
 to execution ; and not venturing so far as formally to 
 take the lives of their fellow-citizens, they made the 
 levying of fines, or recovery of pretended damages, 
 an excuse for forcibly entering their houses, and 
 committing whatsoever acts of violence and robbery 
 they found opportunity for. No man was safe : all 
 who were pointed out as being defective in alle 
 giance to the Church ; all who were supposed to 
 favor them ; all who, by liberality in lending to 
 others had laid themselves open to the false accusa- 
 tion of making excessive profit by it, (and these, no 
 doubt, were such as the malicious bishop suspected 
 of what he called heresy, but was unable to prove 
 against them,) all were alike exposed to the invasion 
 of a fi >rce mob, composed of their own neighbors, 
 and pi course containing many individuals who
 
 200 TRE LADY 6P 
 
 hem pei-son illy on the same grounds that Cain 
 hated Abel upon, and on which he that is "after 
 the flesh" ever has persecuted htm that is " after 
 the Spirit:" these men came armed with the pre- 
 tended authority of law, to execute judgment, while 
 they only perpetrated cruelty and wrong. Such 
 were the multiplied sufferings of the Church of 
 Christ in those days ! So fared it with the poor 
 sheep in the wilderness of this world. 
 
 But Toulouse possessed another class of citizens ; 
 men who, without actually separating from the Ro- 
 rnish communion, were heartily sick of the manifold 
 abominations that prevailed in it the pride, avarice, 
 cruelty, and dissoluteness of the priesthood, their 
 former dronish ignorance, now suddenly changed 
 into the most murderous zeal, and the horrible joy 
 with which they celebrated the wholesale butcheries 
 of their crusading companions : they were also indig- 
 nant at the daring contempt displayed of constituted 
 authority, and desertion of their ruler just when he 
 most needed, and certainly best deserved their help; 
 and no less at the inhuman persecution of the most, 
 harmless, blameless, and exemplary of their whole 
 population. Actuated by such feelings, they lost no 
 time in forming themselves into a protective society, 
 which they denominated "the black company," and 
 took such energetic measures for the suppression of 
 the bishop's party that the whole city was shortly 
 in a state of civil war. These hostile bands paraded 
 the streets, fully armed, with characteristic banners
 
 THE LADY OF LAVAUR. 20] 
 
 displayed ; and alternately tliey attacked, took, and 
 destroyed portions of the fortifications which hap- 
 pened to be garrisoned by individuals of the adverse 
 badge. Thus were the defences of the place weak- 
 ened, and the way paved for an almost unresisted 
 entrance, whenever the crusaders should think fit to 
 attempt it. 
 
 But Raymond had thrown off the crushing yoke 
 of Rome, so far as regarded his temporal rights 
 and with it, howsoever burdened his conscience 
 might be with memoriesof the irrecoverable past, he 
 was rid of an immense weight of present guilt, 
 treachery, and servility. Once more he moved as 
 an independent lord among the multitudes with 
 whom he was still popular on many accounts ; and 
 feeling like a freed-man, both in body and mind, he 
 acted accordingly, with more wisdom and far greater 
 determination than he had exhibited for many a day. 
 Knowing that the return of the five thousand, fresh 
 from the massacre of Lavaur, would tend both to 
 feed the flame of enmity and to throw a great pre- 
 ponderance into the wrong scale, he watched for 
 their arrival, and addressed them in terms, the jus- 
 tice of which they well understood, having been wit- 
 nesses of the indiscriminate thirst for slaughter, fcr 
 plunder, and for the temporal aggrandizement of 
 their leader, that prevailed among the crusaders. 
 He set before them, and ultimately before the whole 
 company, th" certainty of general destruction to 
 which they we - e exposing themselves and their fami-
 
 202 THE LADY OF 1 IVAUR 
 
 lies, by icndering the city an easy conquest t> thos* 
 who conquered only to annihilate : he implored tnem 
 to lay aside their differences for a time ; to unite in re- 
 pairing what had been injured of the defences, and to 
 restore what had fallen into dicay. So well did he 
 succeed with both parties, that a suspension of hos- 
 tilities took place ; and he had the satisfaction of 
 witnessing the first augury of a prosperous issue to 
 the contest, in the good will with which the adverse 
 companies betook themselves to that work that he 
 had pointed out. There can be no doubt that Fou- 
 quet, in arming them one against the other, had 
 acted on the usual principle of Rome ; by dividing 
 to overcome, and to reign over a depopulated coun- 
 try. 
 
 Count Raymond, from being so long the degraded 
 tool of Antichrist, was once more bearing the sword 
 as an appointed ruler, therefore the vicegerent of 
 God, over his people ; and the event was in just 
 accordance with such a change. Its first result 
 was not a little remarkable : Fouquet, abandoning 
 all hope of executing the behests of his masters, 
 summoned around him his multitude of priests, all 
 robed in canonical vestments, and denouncing the 
 city as having become the abode of all evil, through 
 the general excommunication tlut Arnold had ful- 
 minated against it from the camp, he had the wafer 
 elevated on high, and barefooted, chanting doleful 
 litanies, the whole company quitted the place, Fou- 
 quet marching at their head, to throw themselves
 
 1HF. LADY OF LA VA CJR. 203 
 
 into the friendly arms of their crusading bicthren. 
 It was a happy day for Toulouse and for the ha- 
 rassed Raymond, Avhen these troublers took theii 
 departure : the whole population breathed m-ore 
 freely ; and, though there were not wanting many 
 to bewail aloud the state of their deserted shrines, 
 if all who in their hearts did not acknowledge it as 
 a good deliverance had been set apart from the rest, 
 they would have formed but a small company. 
 
 Cheerily and in good earnest the besieged now 
 tetook themselves to somewhat more than merely 
 defensive operations. Raymond, no longer the 
 craven and the crest-fallen, but once more the en- 
 terprising warrior of former days, was stimulated to 
 new achievements as he saw before the walls of his 
 magnificent capital the betrayer, the murderer of his 
 gallant kinsman, Raymond Roger, usurping the ti- 
 tles and possessions of the infant heir, and glaring 
 with the eager rapacity of a hungry wolf on the 
 rich prize that he hoped to seize, by disposing in 
 like manner of the uncle as he had done of the 
 nephew. - Moreover, Count Raymond had a long 
 score of dark offences to wipe out, committed, and 
 connived at, against the people and the cause of 
 God ; and against a multitude of innocent victims 
 whom his treachery had mainly sacrificed to their 
 inhuman foes. Thus excited, he placed himself at 
 the head of his troops and citizens, who were ena- 
 bled in the chieftain and prince to forget the flagel- 
 lated offender against papal insolence, and by a sues-
 
 204 THE LADY OF LAVAUR. 
 
 cession of well-planned sallies equally judii ioxis as 
 bold, he thinned the forces, intercepted the supplies, 
 and so completely baffled all the plans of Simon, 
 that well knowing the expiration of the next forty 
 days would see a very Urge proportion of his 
 fatigued and discomfited host abandon him, the 
 haughty leader found it impossible even to remain 
 before the walls on which he had boasted his flag 
 should, long ere that period, float in triumph ; and 
 lie was compelled to quit the prey that of all oth- 
 ers he most longed to grasp. 
 
 Retreat was not to be thought of : the domains of 
 the Count of Foix offered the allurements of sup- 
 posed inadequacy of defence, with ripening vine- 
 yards, and all the luxurious fertility of a Provenca 
 summer. Thither he bent his steps, with such of 
 the crusaders as still clave to him ; and many a deed 
 of blood they wrought among the helplessin habi- 
 tants of a peaceful district. The SAVord was never 
 sheathed, nor did the smoke of burning cease to 
 ascend, so long as victims could be hunted out to 
 satiate their demands. In this work the runaway 
 priests of Toulouse were valuable auxiliaries : they 
 knew the country well ; and they could point out 
 not only rural dwellings, but whole villages that 
 might have escaped the stranger's unaided search. 
 Brother betraying brother, parents delivering up 
 their children to death, and pastors guiding the 
 wolf to the bosom of the fold, these were a few 
 of the horrors that accompanied that fearful war
 
 THE I.ADV OF XAV.tCK. 203 
 
 against the saints. The undefended parts jf Foii 
 being thus desolated, de Montfort proceeded into 
 the next territory, Quercy ; and here he extorted 
 from the remnant of the slaughtered inhabitants, a 
 recognition of his usurped title, as prince of a country 
 which, lying under the ban of the Pope, became 
 the lawful perquisite of the Pope's chief exeui- 
 tioner. 
 
 As no affliction for the present seemeth joyous, 
 but grievous ; and as it cannot be but that the heart 
 of man will desire to see, if it be God's will, the 
 cup of bitter sorrow removed from before him, we 
 may feel assured that the persecuted people of God 
 hailed with gladness the hope which rose upon them 
 when their lawful rulers, the Counts of Toulouse, of 
 Foix, and of Comminges, the Viscount of Beam, 
 Savary de Mauleon, and others, prepared to assail 
 the invader, and to drive him from his prey. De 
 Montfort was in his turn besieged in Caste! naudery, 
 and for some time it appeared doubtful whether the 
 day of retribution had not arrived, and deliverance 
 dawned on the afflicted heritage of the Lord ; but 
 after some desperate encounters, the persecutor es- 
 caped this threatening danger, and found himself 
 reinforced by new levies. Still a measure of suc- 
 cess attended the union of those who desired to pro- 
 tect their Christian subjects ; and Simon found him- 
 self driven back from his advanced position, the 
 greater part of the castles which he had captured 
 1*
 
 206 THE LADY OF LAVAUR. 
 
 retaken, his garrisons put to flight, or perishing ly 
 the sword that his unprecedented barbarities had 
 whetted against all who followed his banner ; and 
 his immense multitude of military auxiliaries dwin- 
 dled away to a very small band of personal adher- 
 ents. At the end of the year, such was his position, 
 and such it remained for the next six months ; not 
 through any slackening of the pace of those whose 
 feet were ever swift to shed blood ; but because it 
 had pleased the bishop of Rome to proclaim a new 
 crusade in Spain, whither a great multitude has- 
 tened to wash out their sins in the blood of the 
 Moors. 
 
 On this expedition, as being foreign to our sub- 
 ject, we do not dwell ; merely pausing to remark, 
 that the exploits performed in Spain were by no 
 means commensurate with the preparations made, 
 and the great demonstration of military strength 
 that the crusaders succeeded in displaying. The 
 most remarkable feature of the campaign was the 
 triumphant massacre of a whole population of inno- 
 cent and defenceless Jews in Castile. It seemed as 
 though, wherever a curse could be gathered, Rome 
 must even step out of her regular path to appro- 
 priate it ; and here for a little space, the lambs of 
 the Lord's fold were left unmolested, that by a mur- 
 derous attack on the poor lost sheep of the house of 
 Israel, the daring adversary of the Most High might 
 secure a claim to that awful promise, given respect- 
 ing th send of Abraham " I will curse them that
 
 THE LAPY OF LAVAUR. 201 
 
 curse thee." In vain did the Spaniards of Castile, 
 at that time untainted with the desperate spirit of 
 hatred and cruelty afterwards manifested in Spain 
 against the ancient people of God, rally round the 
 Hebrew compatriots whom they had learned by ob- 
 servation and experience to love and respect, as did 
 the Provencals their Albigensic neighbors: their aid 
 was ineffectual, and Jewish blood dyed every gar- 
 ment among the ferocious soldiers of the cross. 
 After this meritorious work, they took their depart- 
 ure, alleging that the climate of Spain became too 
 uultry for them as summer advanced ; and return- 
 ing home they found fresh excitements to rejoin their 
 former banner under the Count de Montfort. 
 
 Military events had indeed been stationary in the 
 aouth of France, for an unusually long period ; but 
 the great wheels of the machinery, the ecclesiastical 
 department, had moved in a singular revolution. 
 We have seen in the case of Fouquet, Bishop of 
 Toulouse, with how fiery, how subtle, and how per- 
 severing a zeal the cause of Rome could be main- 
 tained by a prelate in what was regarded as the 
 very nest and nucleus of all heresy ; and doubtless 
 there were many others equally devoted with him- 
 self to that cause ; but the Papal policy is to ac- 
 count nothing of friendly intentions, even when 
 borne out by deeds, where others have shown them- 
 selves able to render more weighty service. The 
 monks of Citeaux, as we have all .along seen, were 
 the preat propelling power of the crusade, and their
 
 208 THE LAiJY OF LAVAUK. 
 
 farther services must be secured, under the guise of 
 a recompense for the past ; all being made, of course, 
 subservient to tie high interests and honor of their 
 holy mother Church. To accomplish this, a pre- 
 text was made of great lack of zeal and activity 
 among the secular clergy of the invaded provinces ; 
 to their supineness were attributed the recent re- 
 verses of de Montfort ; and to their indiflerontism, 
 the alarming spread of deadly heresies in their re- 
 spective dioceses. 
 
 This was enough : all must be sacrificed to the 
 good cause : and as a matter of course the suspected 
 parties were removed, to make room for the more 
 zealous brethren of Citeaux. Guy, the famous ab- 
 bot of Vaux-Cernay, obtained the bishopric of Car- 
 cassonne, by the resignation (enforced, no doubt) of 
 its previous occupant ; but Arnold Amalric, the fe- 
 rocious legate, chief of the order of Citeaux, here 
 outdid himself, and somewhat damaged the cause, 
 by his unscrupulous and unblushing ambition. Not 
 content with the Archbishopric of Narbonne, he con- 
 trived, by a very characteristic manoeuvre, to add 
 thereto the temporal sovereignty of that rich prov- 
 ince : when he fulminated the sentence of excom- 
 munication against Raymond VI., instead of naming 
 a successor to the several states, he added a clause, 
 securing each lordship to whosoever should be first 
 to occupy the place. It only remained for him to 
 repair to Narbonne, which he did in the character 
 of Archbishop, and thereon grounded his daim
 
 TH LADY OF LAV UJR. 200 
 
 entire sovereignty. Only six days elapsed between 
 his assumption of the archiepiscopal dignity, and his 
 demand for homage as the Viscount de Narbonne. 
 
 This step exceedingly enraged de Montfort ; who, 
 reasonably enough, supposed that his compact with 
 Rome, while it secured to her the blood of the in- 
 habititits, left the land and the gold, no less than 
 the spiritual recompense, to her warrior-execution- 
 ers. A rupture between two such leaders as the 
 Count and the Legate boded no good ; and a deeper 
 effect was produced, by convincing some, even of 
 the persecuting party, that these enthusiastic mis- 
 sionaries of Citeaux had somewhat of more tangible 
 value in prospect, while exercising their vocation to 
 the slaughter of so many thousand innocent fellow- 
 beings, than the canonization with which the Church 
 might perchance some day crown their memories. 
 The effect was widely felt, and perhaps it was a 
 stroke of policy on the part of Arnold to leave as he 
 did his new-found honors for a while, and volunteer 
 to accompany the crusade into Spain. We can pen- 
 etrate but a little way the mystery of iniquity in 
 these its dark and long-past workings, but whether 
 more or less be revealed to our gaze, we find it ever 
 the same, ever wily, active, inveterately liostile in ita 
 actings against God's truth and people ; but nevei 
 losing sight of the great object of temporal aggran- 
 dizement, whether as a whole, or in its several parts. 
 
 The relurn of midsummer found the devastated 
 provinces but little recovered from the wretched 
 18*
 
 210 JflE LADY OF LAVAUR. 
 
 slate in which the destroyer had left them. The 
 land, indeed, was but too richly watered with the 
 blood that tended to fertilize it anew ; but hands 
 were lacking to dress the sprouting vine, and where 
 such were found, the hearts that should have cheered 
 thorn to the work were sad, and heavy, and full of 
 despondency. Too well they knew that the vulture 
 held his perch on their confines ; and that the diver- 
 sion which had for a short season kept him unaided, 
 would speedily be at an end. The extermination of 
 such as .dared openly to protest against any of 
 Rome's abominations, was, moreover, nearly com- 
 plete in those territories ; the life and strength-giv- 
 ing faith that had upheld the martyrs was only to 
 be found, scattered and obscured, beneath the low 
 roofs of distant cottages ; and little could be de- 
 scried beyond the melancholy inertness of a mass 
 who knew themselves doomed to temporal destruc- 
 tion, without enjoying the assured prospect of an in- 
 heritance reserved in heaven for them the purchase 
 and the gift of the Son of God. 
 
 Their anticipations were realized : the monks of 
 Citeaux, inflamed with new ardor by the substantial 
 marks of gratitude recently conferred on their order, 
 betook themselves to preaching in an enlarged 
 sphere, and with increased vehemence. De Mont- 
 fort's army was quickly swelled again to its wonted 
 extent : and as he renewed his advance, the intimi- 
 dated Toulousians were glad to abandon every for- 
 tress that ttey had retaken, saving by flight their
 
 THE LADY OF LAVAUR. 211 
 
 crwn lives Occasionally the footsteps of the Church 
 of Christ were to be traced again, even over this worn- 
 out track, in vestiges of blood and scorching embers, 
 when some simple country hind, some vine-dresser, 
 or peasant girl, who had been captured by the scouts 
 of the crusading force, had witnessed a good profes- 
 sion, and endured the last fiery trial of a faith that 
 could not fail : but so well had the work been ac- 
 complished in the preceding years, that of all the 
 few castles which now dared a show of resistance, 
 two only, those of St. Antonin and of St. Marcel, 
 furnished a tolerable number of victims whom the 
 persecutors could put to death avowedly for the 
 truth's sake which they openly held. Many suffered 
 here. 
 
 At another place, Boissac, against which he pre- 
 vailed after a spirited defence, de Montfort could 
 not find a pretext for bringing the charge of heresy 
 against any of its inhabitants ; yet to allow them, as 
 then it was his policy to do, to capitulate, without 
 a massacre of some sort, would have been too severe 
 a trial for him : he therefore hit on an expedient 
 scarcely credible in our days. The people of Bois- 
 sac had been greatly aided in their defence by the 
 willing services of a body of routiers, who happened 
 then to be within their walls, to the number of three 
 hundred men. These rude soldiers, who knew noth- 
 ing of controversial matters, and lived merely by the 
 eword, wherever they could find employ, had ena- 
 bled the garrison not only to hold out so far, but to
 
 212 THE LADY OF t,A\ 4L'R. 
 
 demand fair terms as the price of a surrender now, 
 The only terms that the ferocious conqueror would 
 grant were these that the citizens should suddenly 
 rise upon and massacre their unsuspecting and valu- 
 able fellow-helpers, the routiers. There was no alter- 
 native : the cold calculations of de Montfort were 
 always borne out by the event; and no hope, sare 
 for a short and uncertain respite, with a general de- 
 struction very certain to follow it, appeared to the 
 wretched citizens. That they were not true Chris- 
 tians is evident from the fact of their fulfilling the 
 terms of this infamous contract : that the routiers 
 were not accounted as belonging to the people of 
 Christ, is equally evident, from the Crusaders being 
 willing that any hands but their own should perpe- 
 trate the murder. 
 
 Toulouse and Montauban were now become the 
 only places of refuge for the terrified people : no 
 other was considered of strength sufficient to with- 
 stand the terrible siege of de Montfort, whose nat- 
 ural cruelty and thirst for blood seemed to have re- 
 ceived a new stimulus and to rage with tenfold 
 violence, since the defection of the legate, and his 
 subsequent inactivity during the Spanish crusade. 
 So rapid was his advance, and so alarming his suc- 
 cesses, that Count Raymond deemed it right to 
 hasten in person to the court of his sovereign, and 
 brother-in-law, Peter, King of Arragon, to claim as 
 a vassal that sovereign's aid against an invader who, 
 under pretence of more fully establishing the eccle
 
 THE EADY OF LAVA ITS. 213 
 
 supremacy, which both the Count and the 
 King acknowledged, was wresting the temporal 
 possessions of the former from their rightful lord, 
 and bringing the dominions of the latter into sub- 
 jection to a foreign prince. For it was de Mont- 
 fort's care, wheresoever he established his authority, 
 to render every thing French : he issued formal de- 
 crees compelling, among other things, all widows 
 and heiresses to marry Frenchmen only, for the 
 space of the next ten years : thus most effectually 
 extinguishing the pride of those high Provencal 
 houses who had ever gloried in their unsullied de- 
 scent from the ancient Goths, or from the ancient 
 Romans ; thence deriving no small share of that 
 independence which led the most worldly among 
 them to espouse the cause of their humble Christian 
 compatriots, against what they regarded as an at- 
 tempt at foreign temporal usurpation. 
 
 We have already seen Peter of Arragon under 
 very favorable circumstances, as encouraging his 
 noble nephew, Raymond Roger, to maintain the 
 cause of his oppressed and persecuted subjects at 
 Carcassonne, and laboring on that injured young 
 man's behalf. He was, indeed, a man of generous 
 mind, and honorable temper; with a cultivated un- 
 dcrstanding, which raised him as far above the cie 
 dulky of Rome's few honest followers as his high 
 sense of honor did above the cunning craftiness of 
 Her many self-interested flatterers. That he was an 
 enlightened man : n spiritual things we cannot vcn
 
 214 THE LADY OF 
 
 M 
 
 ture to hope: his name comes down to us as that 
 of a gallant warrior, actuated by the romantic spirit 
 of chivalry; an elegant, but frivolous poet; a king 
 who never willingly or knowingly acquiesced in the 
 oppression of his subjects for cjoscience' sake; and 
 one who was read}- to peril his life in defence of any 
 that he deemed a just cause. Beyond this, we can 
 ascertain nothing : he was greatly misled by habits 
 of flattering admiration towards women, and by the 
 general laxity then, and alas ! now, too character- 
 istic of regal courts. We can only look upon him 
 as a monarch called forth to defend the scattered 
 fragments of the riven Church, to prove how vain 
 was the help of man, when the Lord had permitted 
 the terrible Beast of prophecy to make war with the 
 saints, and for a time to overcome them. 
 
 The publication of Simon's tyrannical decrees, 
 issued from Pamiers at the time of Count Raymond's 
 visit to Arragon, greatly tended to the furtherance 
 of his suit. As lord of Beziers and of Carcassonne, 
 de Montfort would have been the subject of Peter, 
 and his first duty was to tender the homage of al- 
 legiance to his. rightful monarch; but so far from 
 doing this, he openly proclaimed himself a liege- 
 man of France, and with eager haste proceeded to 
 supplant whatever savored of ancient fidelity to the 
 rightful king. Pedro was considered to be in b'gh 
 favor with the Pope, who had always regarded him 
 with peculiar good will, and his intercession was 
 considered powerful enough to cope with the mighty
 
 THE LADV OF LAVAUR. 215 
 
 influence of de Mont fort at Rome ; the more reason- 
 ably, as it could be plainly shown that in his san- 
 guinary progress the latter had made the well-being 
 of the so-called Church a very minor consideration 
 indeed ; being intent only on establishing his own 
 authority, and enlarging the kingdom of France, at 
 the expense of a dutiful son of that church, such as 
 Peter of Arragon had always shown himself to be. 
 No doubt his shutting himself up with a handful of 
 personal adherents to retain a grasp on the con- 
 quered Carcassonne, when Innocent himself had 
 sounded the alarm for a crusade beyond the Pyre- 
 nees, was kept in view ; and the fact, that, in the 
 last province which he had both invaded and devas- 
 tated, Agenois, no taint of heresy had been alleged 
 to prevail, all the inhabitants being professedly 
 Romanists, made exceedingly against the supposed 
 pious devotion of the Count. That any actual com- 
 punction visited the papal bosom, for the cruel suf- 
 fering of the innocent Albigenses, it would be hard 
 
 D CJ 
 
 to believe : that any softening of the opposing and 
 self exalting spirit which warreth against God and 
 his saints took place, would be to suppose that, for 
 a short season, Antichrist forsook his seat on the 
 seven-hilled city. We must refer all these changes 
 and mutations, overruled as they were and are, and 
 always shall be, by the sovereign power of the Most 
 High, to the wisdom that cometh from benea/h ; 
 earthly, sensual, devilish : always seeking the pre
 
 yifi THE LADY OF LAVAUR. 
 
 eminence, and always thirsting for the blood of th 
 aiartyrs of Jesus. 
 
 One thing more must be kept in view : it appears 
 (i at Count Raymond had anew placed himself un- 
 der the unreserved and unlimited control of the 
 Pope : that he had offered a pledge to go to the 
 Holy Land, or whithersoever he might be com- 
 manded to go, leaving his son to inherit his posses- 
 sions, whose unshaken fidelity to the Roman pontifi. 
 cate was doubly guaranteed by the king of Arragon ; 
 and so far from weakening, the plan proposed was 
 calculated to strengthen the power of the Pope ; 
 who could not but feel that, with all his wonderful 
 daring, and all his most unrivalled craftiness, he was 
 often made individually of less account by his own 
 creatures than he was willing to admit. In the 
 present instance, he was incited to act a part rarely 
 ventured on by the occupant of Peter's feigned seat ; 
 to try the power of a Pope against the spirit of 
 Popery, to raise the voice of the Beast's image 
 against those who gave it life, and motion, and ut- 
 terance, and at whose command the world worship- 
 ped it. This experiment never yet succeeded ; the 
 sharp reprimands of Innocent III., addressed to the 
 fierce and arrogant prelate of Narbonne, and the 
 other usurped sees, were indeed received with all 
 mtwiird respect. : but when the council assembled 
 which he had commanded them to call together, for 
 the reparation of some of the many scandalous 
 wrongs, perpetrated during the crusades, against
 
 THE LADY OF LAVADft. il7 
 
 such ;is held allegiance to Rome, and the restoration 
 of the Counts of Toulouse, Beam, Fbix, and other 
 excommunicate lords, to their rights, temporal and 
 spiritual, their every decree was in direct defiance 
 alike of the letter and of the spiiit of these public 
 instructions. They justified all that was there con- 
 demned; made doubly fast all that they were told 
 to unloose: renewed their insolent sentences of ex- 
 communication ; and, moreover, rendered to the Vat- 
 lean reasons so satisfactory for these proceedings, by 
 means of that subtle, ever-working machinery that> 
 making Rome its centre, has for many centuries con. 
 vulsed, and in a great measure governed the whole 
 world, that the wretched puppet of Satanic rule 
 again veered round, and granted a tacit confirmation 
 of all these iniquitous proceedings. 
 
 The relation of the war, in a military point of 
 view, becomes at this juncture exceedingly interest- 
 ing ; but with wars and fighting we have nothing to 
 do, except as they bear on the history of the perse- 
 cuted saints. The king of Arragon, justly exaspe- 
 rated at such double perfidy, no longer hesitated to 
 aid in person the aggrieved loi-ds : he chose out a 
 thousand knights, the flower of his army, long ac- 
 customed to battle against the Moors in Spain, nd 
 placing himself at their head, joined the forces of 
 the Languedocian nobles, now prepared to give bat- 
 tle to de Montfort, wheresoever he should choose 
 his ground. The recruiting brethren of Citeaux 
 were everywhere on the alert ; F *nee poured forth 
 19
 
 2*8 THE LADY OF LAVAtJR. 
 
 ber chivalry, in bright and terrible legions of mail 
 clad horsemen, the great strength, in those days, of 
 a hostile force. Squadron after squadron, clad in 
 iron mail, and most formidably armed with every 
 weapon of destruction, while gold and silver and 
 gorgeous housings in every variety, added to the im- 
 posing magnificence of their army, were marshalled 
 on the plains. Seven bishops, in all the harlot 
 pomp and bravery of their apostate Church, had 
 joined to bless in solemn mockery, the various stand- 
 ards of this embattled host, which numbered in its 
 ranks but too many representatives from every coun- 
 try over which the idol crucifix bore sway : and then, 
 followed by shoals of priestly abettors, they pro- 
 ceeded on the wonted scent of blood. It was truly 
 a fearful war, of man against man ; of Papal vassals 
 defending the fair land bequeathed them by their 
 fathers against papal vassals, who sought, on any 
 pretext, to shed their blood, and to despoil them of 
 those possessions. They met near the town of Mu- 
 rct, three miles from Toulouse ; de Montfort was 
 victorious, the king of Arragon was slain by some 
 who had bound themselves to fight with none but 
 him ; but who, by surrounding and overpowering, 
 succeeded in completing what may well be called a 
 murder. For the rest of the routed host, not one 
 escaped whom the spear of the merciless victor 
 could pierce, or his mailed hands succeed in plung. 
 ing beneath the waters of the Garonne, which that 
 day ran r^d w ' ,h the blood of thousands.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE WEARING OUT. 
 
 u PRINCE of the kings of the earth " King of 
 kings, and Lord of lords ;" these are among the 
 tnany incommunicable titles of the Redeemer, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ ; and it cannot but be that the 
 enemy who usurps his power and authority over so 
 vast a portion of his nominal subjects, should lay 
 claim to these high, distinctive names. It has been 
 so, from the commencement of the reign of the de- 
 veloped " Man of Sin," even to our day, to this pe- 
 riod, when the ruler of the Vatican received from 
 the mighty Prince of Rosh, of Meahech and Tubal, 
 the feudal homage of kissing his ring ; and when 
 he denounced as sore rebellion against God, the 
 measures taken by the lofty Czar to curb the power 
 of Rome. In this world of change, it is really won- 
 derful to mark the unchanging features of that 
 /igantic imposture which has lorded it so long over 
 God's heritage ; and which is destined to fall at last 
 from a more fearfully daring height of wickedness 
 than it has ever yet attained. 
 
 In this usurped character of " Prince of the kinga
 
 220 THE WEARING OTTT. 
 
 of the earth," did the papacy adjudge the gallant* 
 king of Arragon to be a traitcr, and to have justly 
 fallen in the act of rebellion against its power. In- 
 nocent, " servant of the servants of God," assuming 
 to dispose at will of the kingdoms of the world, ever 
 sought to place his heel on the neck of refractory 
 monarch s ; and the death of Peter, falling in battle 
 against the priest-led crusade: s, could not but be an 
 event highly favorable to his assumptions; nor did 
 they fail to represent it as a direct judgment from 
 above. The fact of the royal heir, Don Jayme, be- 
 ing actually in the hands of de Montfort, to whom, 
 in some moment of infatuation, his father had con- 
 fided him, increased the exultation of one party, and 
 the dismay of the other. But an appeal to Rome, 
 on the part of his subjects, vigorously supported, 
 and secretly, no doubt, aided by a growing jealousy 
 of de Montfort's immense power, proved effectual : 
 the prince was restored, and allowed to ascend his 
 father's throne. Meanwhile, though Muret was so 
 near Toulouse, that the perfect victory obtained 
 there seemed to decide the fate of the capital, it was 
 productive of no important results to the victors. 
 Satisfied with their achievements, and deeply dyed 
 in the blood of those who, if not themselves ac- 
 cused of heresy, were fighting in the heretical cause 
 of excommunicated princes, the crusaders quickly 
 dispersed themselves after the battle ; and whatever 
 advantages de Montfort m'ght have anticipated from 
 being the unresis'xl master of the field, and within
 
 THE w SAB TNG cmt. 221 
 
 some half-hour's march of Toulouse, he was ren 
 dered unable to cany out his designs, by seeing his 
 legions melt away, until only a skeleton army re- 
 mained with him ; while the new legate appointed 
 to succeed Arnold proved a poor ally ; for he in- 
 stead of pursuing with fire and sword the lords of 
 Toulouse, of Foix, and others as did his prede- 
 cessor, persuaded them to take shelter under his 
 protection, and made peace between them and his 
 church, on terms exceedingly advantageous to the 
 latter ; ruinous and disgraceful to them, as inde- 
 pendent lords. This took place at Narbonne ; and 
 Peter, our great authority, characterizes it as a pious 
 fraud, by which the legate cajoled the heretical 
 leaders, while de Montfort, with a recruited army, 
 passed unresisted into Agenois, carrying on with 
 very little hindrance, the work of cruelty and blood. 
 Few victims, of the kind which they most panted 
 after, remained to glut their ferocious hatred : the 
 Lord's people had fallen by the sword, by famine, 
 and by the miseries of hopeless flight, for so many 
 days, that they seemed to be well nigh extinct. 
 Yet, occasionally, a company was collected, worthy 
 the martyrdom that awaited them, and who, instead 
 of being, like their less suspected countrymen, 
 merely slaughtered in an ordinary way, were burnt 
 alive with all the solemnity, and all the joy, that 
 such a spectacle was calculated to call forth. Mu- 
 rillac was one of the places so happily distinguished ; 
 and Peter do Vaux-Cernay thus records it. " I must 
 19*
 
 222 THE WEARING OUT. 
 
 not omit to state that we found there seven heretics, 
 of the sect called Waldenses. Being conducted to 
 the legate, they confessed their unbelief; and weie 
 then seized by our pilgrims, and burned with un 
 epeakable joy." 
 
 This is the first instance of our finding the ancient 
 nnd truly apostolic Church of the Waldenses pro- 
 viding victims for the Alhigensic persecution. Dis- 
 tinct in their origin, their history, and their place of 
 abode, these were yet twin branches of the true 
 Vine ; holding one Lord, one faith, one baptism ; 
 and ultimately sharing one doom, of all that man's 
 most deadly cruelty could inflict on earth : all that 
 God has reserved for His dear children, the saints 
 and martyrs of Jesus, in heaven. Success appeared 
 to wait on the steps of the wretched man whose 
 whole life was devoted to this most awfully wicked 
 work of seeking to root out the Church of Christ 
 from the earth. He made it, indeed, notoriously 
 subservient to his selfish passions, his lust of plun- 
 der and of power ; hie natural cruelty and detesta- 
 tion of all that was good ; but though on many oc- 
 casions it was manifest that the dragon's vicegerent 
 understood the baseness of Simon's character as well 
 as the dragon himself understood his, he was too 
 able and too successful in the work of slaughter to 
 be discarded as a fitting tool. He, theiefore, re- 
 mained unchecked in his frightful career of blood 
 and rapacity ; to fall, in due time, beneath the aiua 
 of Almighty vengeance.
 
 THE WEARING DOT. 2'<J3 
 
 But the flock of the Lord, the beautiful and 
 harmless flock that had so long been pastured in 
 those valleys, where now were, they ? Seven years 
 Irad elapsed since the first outrage was committed 
 b\ attacking Beziers ; and changed as was the face 
 of the once smiling country, far more changed was 
 its spiritual aspect. What the apostate Church 
 called heresy, could nowhere be found : the light 
 was extinguished ; the gates of hell had to all ap- 
 pearance prevailed against the Church of Christ 
 throughout the region where it had for so long a 
 period flourished in peace. 
 
 Behold that toil-worn traveller, who, in homely ap- 
 parel, and with a pack of humble wares slung from 
 his shoulders, is slowly and listlessly pursuing his 
 way along a path once well defined and frequented, 
 but now torn up, and well-nigh obliterated by con- 
 tinual alternations of the trampling march, and the 
 utter desertion that must needs follow, where those 
 who proceeded onward left not alive any human 
 being within reach of their grasp. He seems to 
 know it well, and keeps so correctly within its origi- 
 nal boundaries as to excite the attention of some 
 few scattered laborers, who have rebuilt their ruined 
 cots, and are tilling the deteriorated soil. These 
 had fled to the mountain caves, or otherwise con- 
 cealed themselves, while the destroying hosts swept 
 by ; and now they are again on the site of their 
 former houses, again engaged in rural occupation, 
 and one might h >pe that it is with them as ir. days
 
 224 HIE WEARWO OUT. 
 
 past, when the candle of the Lord shone upon their 
 tabernacle. The traveller is one who formerly stood 
 conspicuous among the bold teachers of Gospel 
 truth, in that neighborhood, where pure religion waa 
 more openly countenanced, and the doctors of the 
 faithful Church more freely encouraged than in most 
 other places around it. He, the peddler, now bend- 
 ing less with age or bodily feebleness than with sor- 
 row, had there held many a disputation with the 
 assailants of the faith, and put to silence the subtle 
 sophistries with which they sought to beguile the 
 souls of his people. He had oft been the honored 
 guest of the feudal sovereign, who ruled that pro- 
 vince ; and well was he remembered when, in his 
 progress, but a few days since, he presented himself 
 at the castle gate that had always been fJung wide 
 at his approach ; but terror and dismay overspread 
 the countenances of those who so readily recalled 
 the voice and features of one concerning whom it was 
 doubtful whether he had perished in the flames, or 
 fallen by the sword or famine, or found a refuge in 
 some distant clime. Word was speedily brought to 
 the Count of the dangerous guest who stood with- 
 out ; and he, lately reconciled to Rome, and deliv 
 ered from the ban of excommunication on a pledge 
 of using his utmost efforts to root out every vestige 
 of heresy wheresoever he should detect it, was for a 
 moment in doubt whether to connive at the escape of 
 a teacher, to whom his masters would have adjudged 
 an abode in the deepest dungeon of the castle, with
 
 THE WEARING OUT. 225 
 
 .10 means of prolonging life, even if that 1'fe were 
 not publicly sacrificed to Rome. A better feeling 
 prevailed ; remembrance of the happy past, f.ad the 
 knowledge that the victim of persecution was a l.oly 
 man, devoted to God in the Gospel of His Son, and 
 eminently fruitful in every good word and work, re- 
 strained the unhappy noble from adding to his own 
 sin, and to the sorrows of a helpless exile : he dis- 
 patched a knight who fully understood the mat- 
 ter, and participated in his feeling, to inform the 
 wanderer that the inmates of the castle had no 
 need of his merchandise, nor was it agreeable to 
 their lord's will that strangers of a doubtful aspect 
 should find admittance in these troublous times, 
 when some evil-disposed persons were supposed to 
 be creeping abroad, to unsettle the minds of the 
 people, and to shake their allegiance to their sove- 
 reign lord and ruler, the vicegerent of God, the most 
 holy and venerated pontiff. 
 
 All this was spoken, in a loud, a fierce, and a de- 
 cided voice, in the hearing of those who stood near ; 
 but there was that in the old knight's eye, as, with 
 face averted from the rest he kept it steadfastly 
 fixed on the pastor's, which bospoke a grief and a 
 sympathy strangely opposed both to the tenor and 
 the tone of his speech. Touched to his inmost soul, 
 the preacher meekly bowed submission ; and with 
 upraised t yes, silently invoking the blessing that ho 
 dared not tc utt r aloud, he turned from the frowu
 
 220 THE WKAKIHG OtTt. 
 
 ing battlements, to seek a lowlier shelter in the vala 
 helovv. 
 
 The scattered huts among which he now passed 
 were occupied by a race altogether unknown to 
 him ; probably adventurers from France, placed 
 there by the wily de Montfort, to supply the lack 
 of inhabitants where his sword had cut off every 
 living thing. With these he sought and found a 
 supply of his present wants ; bartering the small 
 wares of his pack for their simple fare. But ere 
 long the scene changed, and he now finds himself 
 among familiar faces, though intermingled with 
 many perfectly strange. These latter were stanch 
 and vigilant adherents to the papacy, carefully scat- 
 tered about the land, to watch, and to give due no- 
 tice if a symptom appeared, in public or in private, 
 either of the retention or revival of heresy in any 
 form whatever. 
 
 With an overflowing heart does that beloved 
 teacher approach the objects of his former care ; 
 and quickly is he recognized, as the deep pantings 
 of many a bosom declare, while the brow perchance 
 is knitted, to discourage, and the lead bent or the 
 eye averted, to shun him. There is no sign of wel- 
 come, no whispering salutation of peace : nothing 
 but an evident dread, lest his presence should lead 
 to their destruction. By some, .he crucifix is 
 hastily displayed, as a token that, before rmm at 
 least, they know no better hope than such lying 
 vanities can impart ; and others, by a loud remark
 
 THE WRARlMi OUT. 22? 
 
 to a neighboring assistant, convey the intimation 
 that, their creed is that which of old they abjured. 
 
 Meanwhile, a group of children, and very young 
 persons, gather around the traveller, demanding to 
 see the contents of his pack, which he readily 
 spreads before them ; gazing with wistful curiosity 
 in their blooming faces, touched as some among 
 them were with traces of earlv suffering, and more 
 than one or two exhibiting scars from the cuts of 
 a merciless sabre. Among those who bent over 
 the scattered treasures, he is struck by the counte- 
 nances of two lovely girls, twins, whose close resem- 
 blance to each other is scarcely greater than what 
 both bear to a peasant who was once the very flower 
 of his flock in that district ; and well he remembers 
 baptizing twin girls of hers some ten years pre- 
 viously, and sweet is the recollection of the season 
 of prayer and praise that marked the event. A 
 longing desire to hear of her, half subdued by fear 
 lest the, tale of apostasy should blight his once con- 
 fident hope in the firm faith of that devoted woman, 
 leads him to watch every movement of the lively 
 twins, until at length one of them, selecting an arti- 
 cle, holds it up, demanding its price. As she shakes 
 back the wild ringlet from her brow, the resemblance 
 becomes more striking ; and he answers her inquiry, 
 adding, " If your mother, young maiden, approves 
 the purchase, we shall not dispute about the price." 
 " What know you of her mother '?" asked a sinister- 
 looking young man who stood by : and the teacher.
 
 22B THE WEARING OUT. 
 
 fearing for theso lambs of a broken Ud, replies, "I 
 know not even their names, or yov.fs, or any around 
 me : but the young should seek to be guided by pa- 
 rental wisdom, even in trifling things." " She haa 
 no mother, happily for her !" WAS the remark of sev- 
 eral of the bystanders : and the girl herself hastily 
 added, " My mother was burnt with fifteen other 
 heretics, by the holy pilgrims, four years ago." 
 " And we nre good Catholics, and hafe all heresy," 
 said the other twin. 
 
 This little incident told a tale more comprehen- 
 sive, more heart-rending, than many a day's investi- 
 gation might have done. The children spoke, evi- 
 dently in some terror : and the very tone in which 
 their remarks were made proved them to have been 
 learned by rote. The peddler gathered his wares up, 
 after disposing of a few, and crossing in heavy silence 
 the vineyard, he perceived the father of the twins 
 engaged at his work. Resolved to discover some 
 ground of consolation here, he neither approached 
 him nor attracted his attention : but seeking present 
 rest in a secluded corner, awaited the close of day ; 
 then to seek the humble dwelling where his heart 
 told him he should find the wonted welcome. 
 
 He went : the father was seated in his hut, and 
 around him the few children left of a large family, 
 one of whom was crippled and helpless from the 
 effects of snvage cruelty. The teacher entered, and 
 threw off his slouching c*ip, and stood fully re- 
 realed, prepared to fold in a paternal embraco
 
 TtfE U'RAUtN \ OtTT. 'J2J* 
 
 those objects of his solicitous care. Yhe father 
 sprang from his seat, and with frantic gesture, in 
 tones of wild, but smothered passion, exclaimed, 
 " Begone ! begone ! Is it not yet enough ? has not 
 the flame been fed ? has not the sword been glutted ? 
 has not the rack enjoyed its prey ? Come you here 
 to mark out 'the victims anew, to let loose the blood- 
 hounds the holy pilgrims the crusaders on a 
 ravaged district ? Begone to your concealment, be 
 it Avhere it may ; and God help you safe back to it ! 
 but leave us, leave the place, we are changed now : 
 we are loyal to begone !" 
 
 It was enough : the pastor's cup of sorrow was 
 full. Farther search he deemed fruitless for any 
 good effect, and pregnant with peril to his lost 
 flock. He turned, prepared to retrace his steps to 
 the place of his distant refuge, where, in rocks and 
 caves, were hidden a smaller band of fugitives to 
 whose persevering entreaties, and almost violence, 
 he owed his own safety. Sad were the tidings he 
 must bear to them, of many whom he had seen 
 under circumstances that scarcely allowed a hope to 
 linger in his breast, as to their fidelity to the faith ; 
 but he cast himself on the firm rock of Christ's 
 word, in reference to such as were truly his sheep 
 " I give unto them eternal life, and none is able 
 to pluck them out of my hand ;" and thus, sorrow- 
 ful, yet alway rejoicing, he pursued the pathway 
 home. 
 
 Seldom indeed was any found sufficiently daring 
 20
 
 230 
 
 to make, however disguised, such a pilgrimage ; fot 
 the terrors that had led perhaps not a few into open 
 apostasy from the faith in which they had been 
 brought up, prevailed with multitudes to whom that 
 faith was never more than an .object of careless 
 toleration or involuntary respect, to become vigilant 
 observers of, and eager informers against, suspected 
 characters. They were not generally actuated by 
 real hostility, but wrought upon by the unspeakable 
 dread that such horrors as they had recently wit* 
 nessed could not but inspire : and in some instances, 
 no doubt, regarding their teachers as the authors 
 of their calamities, they entertained a vindictive 
 feeling which their spiritual guides well knew how 
 to keep alive, and to turn to their own account. 
 Of the former class was he from whose abode the 
 pastor had been rudely expelled; and who well 
 knew that he was surrounded and watched by many 
 of the latter. One effect, and indeed the most fatal 
 of all, was the cessation of all scriptural instruction 
 in the families of those who themselves still cher- 
 ished in their hearts the love of the truth. Chil- 
 dren were too open and unguarded to be intrusted 
 with the perilous secret : they were carefully looked 
 after, and rigidly questioned by the priests and 
 friars who now ruled the land despotically ; and to 
 keep them in utter ignorance of their parents' senti- 
 ments, to help them to forget what they might 
 alread* have learned, and to inculcate implicit obe- 
 dience tc tl e papacy in all its branches, was ths
 
 THE BEARING OtTT. 231 
 
 only resource of those who still looked forward to a 
 time when the Lord should arise on their behalf, and 
 restore to them the precious privilege of worshipping 
 Him according to the revelation of his will, and the 
 dictates of his Spirit. 80 far as outward appear- 
 ance went, true religion was utterly extinct among 
 them ; the most abject submission to Popish autho- 
 rity having succeeded liberty of conscience. The 
 reconciled lords set the example of scrupulous ob- 
 servance where their inmost souls scorned and de- 
 tested the puerile follies, unmeaning mummeries, 
 and burdensome restraints by which they were 
 shackled. The manliness of simple truth had won 
 their respect, and its fruits of straight-forward in- 
 tegrity had excited their admiration, contrasted as 
 they were with the marked opposites in the clergy 
 and the devotees of Rome : but they had not given 
 their hearts to God ; they were not personally par- 
 takers in the like precious faith with those whom 
 they had esteemed and protected : and when the 
 alternative alone remained to them of indeed losing 
 all, including probably their lives, for the Gospel's 
 sake, or of purchasing security in their possessions 
 at the price of a seeming submission in all tilings to 
 a powei whose yoke they had always professed to 
 wear, little hesitation could be expected. Their 
 subjects, seeing them ostentatiously forward in al! 
 acts of outward obsequiousness to the priesthood, 
 and all observances of Ron.ish superstition, felt that 
 no hope remained for them. The most devoted of
 
 232 THE WKARlNtt OTTT. 
 
 the simple followers of Christ had perished in the 
 flames, on the gibbet, by the sword, or the rack ; 
 others, following the direction given to the early 
 Church, fled from the scene of their persecution lo 
 such places of refuge as they could find ; and the 
 remnant sank under the weight of calamities that 
 had left them a meiv handful, scattered up and 
 down in what was now an enemy's country. Public 
 teaching was of course unthought of, where men 
 dared not assemble three or four together for private 
 exhortation and united prayer, lest one of the num- 
 ber should prove a traitor. Ordinances ceased from 
 among them: all means of grace were withheld; 
 and the light of the Gospel faded away, and the 
 tree which the Lord had planted, withered and 
 drooped, and cast its leaves, a bare, desolate monu- 
 ment of what it once had been. 
 
 By such means has the great Mystery of iniquity 
 always prevailed in warring against the saints, where 
 power was permitted answerable to its wicked will, 
 Its dragon voice has been heard to the uttermost 
 bounds of the earth, saying to its agents, " Arise, 
 devour much flesh." It is only when some limit is 
 placed to its external working, that the lamb's horns 
 are exhibited in ostentatious meekness to a deceived 
 world, and the " servant of the servants of God" 
 ceases to fulminate decrees >f universal slaughter, 
 breathing out gentle tones of humility and peace. 
 We have se ;n, so far, its operations against the true 
 followers of ihe true Lamb : it will be our next step
 
 THE WEAHINJ 01 T. 233 
 
 to show the actual embodying, the solemn ratifica 
 tion, the indelible stamping and sealing of Papal 
 Rome's most murderous principles, as acted out in 
 the twelfth century, in an unrepealed decree of the 
 infallible Church, now in full force all over the 
 world ; and even now, thanks to the desperate in- 
 fatuation of nominally Protestant rulers, in full 
 operation HERE, in Great Britain, the supposed for- 
 tress of Protestantism ; the chosen and favored, but, 
 alas ! not the faithful witness among all nations, of 
 those truths for which her noblest and her lowliest 
 children yielded with equal freeness their lives at 
 the stake, as a testimony against what their descend- 
 ants are warming and cherishing in their bosoms, 
 to give new vigor to the sting already aimed at their 
 immortal souls. The fourth Council of Lateran was 
 held during this pause of death, and we cannot 
 lightly pass it over. 
 
 The ostensible object of Lotharius de Signi in 
 assembling the twelfth General Council, the fourth 
 that met in the Lateran Palace, and thence derived 
 its name, was to revive the spirit of the Eastern ra- 
 ther than to forward the interests of the Western 
 crusade. The latter appeared to have done its 
 work : the voice of the Gospel had been silenced, 
 and the poor remnant of a torn and scattered flock 
 had tied, or soncealed themselves, or put on the 
 semblance of conformity with what they loathed, 
 to save themselves and t.heir ]ittle ones from the 
 20*
 
 234 THE WEARING OUT. 
 
 butcher's knife. It was enough that Simon de 
 Montfort had fixed his vulture eye upon the terri- 
 tory, and extended as he could his grasp, in the 
 character of the church's champion. He alone was 
 now held sufficient to cope with all opposition in 
 that quarter ; and some danger appeared of an ap- 
 proaching pause, in which the enthralled monarchs 
 of Chistendom might have leisure to contemplate 
 their fetters, and possibly to devise a way of freeing 
 themselves from the galling yoke of Rome. It be- 
 hooved the haughty and subtle pontiff to avert such 
 a contingency : he therefore summoned this famous 
 Council to meet in the Great City which ruleth over 
 the kings of the earth ; and proudly did he look 
 down upon the glittering scene, where representa- 
 tives of every nation appeared, to own the vassal- 
 age in which their respective sovereigns were con- 
 tent to abide under the despotic rule of the self- 
 exalted Man of Sin. There were present in that 
 spacious edifice the patriarchs of Constantinople 
 and of Jerusalem, an ambassador from the patriarch 
 of Antioch ; seventy-four metropolitan primates, 
 three hundred and forty bishops, eight hundred 
 abbots and friars, and clergy generally of the higher 
 orders whose numbers defied calculation. These 
 formed the ecclesiastical portion of the assembly ; 
 while of crowned monarchs were seen the selected 
 representatives of the Emperor of Constantinople, 
 the kings of Jerusalem, of England, France, Hungary, 
 Arragon, and verj many others, who were there to
 
 THE WEARING OUT. 235 
 
 yield the abject assent of their sovereigns to what- 
 ever this Italian despot might deem it right to dic- 
 tate. He did, in fact, alone and with despotic au- 
 thority, draw up the whole series of chapters, now 
 known as the decrees of that famous Council ; and 
 laid them before the assembled delegates, as the 
 mandate of one whose will was law. Some discon- 
 tent is reported to have been betrayed, on various 
 points, by certain of the members ; and, perhaps, 
 the pope's arrogant mode of proceeding stirred up 
 the resentment of some : but this man had now 
 for seventeen years wielded the destinies of west 
 and east, and was still in the vigor of active life, 
 not having completed his fifty-third year. To re- 
 sist the Sovereign Pontiff, and that Pontiff Inno- 
 cent III., in matters appertaining to the Church 
 of which he was justly accounted the pillar meet 
 pillar for such a Church ! would have been to raise 
 a storm that none cared to brave : therefore were 
 the decrees of the fourth Lateran Council silently 
 ratified, without discussion, and thenceforth they be- 
 came part and parcel of the laws of papacy ; as 
 such, distinctly recognized, and forever rendered im- 
 perative, by ths memorable Council of Trent, which 
 was the first General Council that ever embodied in 
 one form, and solemnly ratified by authority assum- 
 ing to be infallible, the vague, subtle, shifting and 
 evadible dogmas of the Romish Apostasy. 
 
 The decrees or canons of the Fourth Lateran 
 Coiinc 1 amounted to twenty, bearing on various sub-
 
 230 THE WEAR TNG OUT. 
 
 jects, and ostensibly fran>ed for other pu-poses ; but 
 the third of those canons seems to hare breathed 
 the inmost feelings of Lotharius de Signi's hei.rt. 
 It is entitled " De Haereticis," and its object is to 
 put down, thenceforth and f irever, all opposition 
 to the system of Rome ; to pluck up and to destroy 
 every plant of God's planting that should peep 
 above the ground where the Great Harlot reigns. 
 A project vain as impious ; but with what craft and 
 subtlety dovised, and how kee^y poii.ted at the 
 bosoms of the poor Albigenses, a sMght examination 
 may assure us. At the same time, a consciousness 
 of being ourselves included in the class here treated 
 of, and of lying, bona fide, under the same sentence, 
 suspended only because the Romish arm has not 
 yet regained sufficient power to make war upon us, 
 and to crush us, such consciousness must add a 
 deeper interest to the perusal of this infamous canon, 
 which we will give entire. 
 
 " WE excommunicate and anathematize every her- 
 esy which exalteth itself against this holy, orthodox, 
 and catholic faith, which we have set forth above ; 
 condemning all heretics, by whatsoever names they 
 may be reckoned ; who have indeed divers faces, 
 but their tails are bound together, for they make 
 agreement in the same folly.* 
 
 " Let such persons, when condemned, be left to 
 
 . * This allusion to Samson's foxes, having their taiiS tied 
 together with firebrands, was a favorite figure of Pope Inno- 
 cent's, as applied to the nobles of Languedoc.
 
 THK WEARING ODT. 237 
 
 the secular powers who may be present, to bo pun- 
 ished in a fitting manner ; those who are of the 
 clergy being first degraded from their orders : so 
 that the goods of such condemned persons, if they 
 shall be laymen, be confiscated ; but in the case of 
 clerks, be applied to the churches from which they 
 derived their stipends. 
 
 " But let those who are only marked with sus- 
 picion, be smitten with the sword of anathema, and 
 be shunned by all men until they make proper sat- 
 isfaction ; unless, according to the grounds of sus- 
 picion, and the quality of the person, they shall 
 have demonstrated their innocence by a proportion- 
 ate purgation. So that if they shall persevere in 
 excommunication for a twelvemonth, thenceforth let 
 them be conde'mned as heretics. And let the secu- 
 lar powers, whatever offices they may discharge, 
 be admonished and induced, and, if need be, com- 
 pelled by ecclesiastical censure, that, as they desire 
 to be reputed and accounted faithful, so, for the 
 defence of the faith, they publicly set forth on oath 
 that to the utmost of their power, they will, bona 
 fide, strive to exterminate from the lands subject to 
 their jurisdiction, all heretics pointed out by the 
 church ; so that wheresoever any person is advanced, 
 cither to temporal or spiritual power, he be bound to 
 Confirm this decree with an oath. 
 
 " But if any temporal lord, being required and 
 admonished by the church, shall neglect to cleanse 
 his country o' his heretical filth, let him be bound
 
 238 THK WEARING OU7. 
 
 with the c'.ain of excommunication by the metro 
 politan and other co-provincial bishops. And if he 
 shall scorn to make satisfaction within a year, let 
 this be signified to the supreme pontiff ; that, thence- 
 forth, lie may declare his vassals absolved from their 
 fidelity to him, and may expose his land to be oc- 
 cupied by the Catholics, who, the heretics being ex- 
 terminated, may without contradiction possess it, and 
 preserve it in the purity of the faith : saving the 
 right of the chief lord, so long as he presents no 
 obstacle, and offers no hindrance in this matter : the 
 same law, nevertheless, being observed concerning 
 those who have not lords in chief. 
 
 " But let the Catholics who, having taken the 
 sign of the cross, have girded themselves for the 
 extermination of the heretics, enjoy the same indul- 
 gence, and be armed with the same holy privilege, 
 as is conceded to those who go to the assistance of 
 the Holy Land. 
 
 " But we decree also, that the believers, the re- 
 ceivers, the defenders, and abettors of the heretics, 
 lie under excommunication : firmly determining that 
 if any one, after he has been marked with excom- 
 munication, shall refuse to make satisfaction within 
 a twelvemonth, he is thenceforth of right in very 
 deed infamous, and be not admitted to public offices 
 or councils ; nor to elect any person for any thing 
 of the sort, nor to give evidence. Let him also be 
 intestable, so as neither to have power to bequeathe, 
 aor to siicc-.'gd to an inheritance.
 
 "HE WEARING OUT. . 239 
 
 " Morrover, let no man be obliged to answer him in 
 any matter, but let him be compelled to answer oth- 
 ers. If haply he be a judge, let his sentence nave nfl 
 force, nor let any causes be brought for his hearing. 
 If he be an advocate, let not his pleading be admitted. 
 If a notary, let the instruments drawn up by him be 
 invalid, and be condemned with their damned author. 
 And we charge that the same be observed in similar 
 cases. But if he be a clerk, let him be deposed from 
 every office and benefice, that where there is the great- 
 er fault, the heavier vengeance may be exercised. 
 
 " But if any shall fail to shun such persons after 
 they have been pointed out by the church, let them 
 be compelled by the sentence of excommunication 
 to make fitting satisfaction. Let the clergy by no 
 means administer the sacraments of the Church to 
 such pestilent persons, nor presume to commit them 
 to Christian burial, nor receive their alms nor obla- 
 tions : otherwise let them be deprived of their office, 
 to which let them never be restored without the 
 special indulgence of the Apostolic See. In like 
 manner any regulars on whom also this may be in- 
 flicted, that their privileges in that diocese, in which 
 they shall have dared to perpetrate such excesses, be 
 not preserved. 
 
 " But because some, under the semblance of piety 
 but denying the power thereof, as the Apostle says, 
 Rssxime to themselves the authority of preaching, 
 when the same Apostle says, ' How shall they preach 
 9Jcept they be sent?' let all who, being prohibited
 
 240 THE WKAK1NC I )T. 
 
 Or not sent, shall presume publicly or privately to 
 usurp the office of pleaching, be bound with the 
 chain of excommunication, and unless they immedi- 
 ately repent, they shall be smitten with other suita- 
 ble punishment. 
 
 " We Add, moreover, that every archbishop or 
 bishop shall either by himself, his archdeacon, or 
 other honest and suitable persons, twice, or at least 
 once every year, go round his own parish [diocese] 
 in which there shall be a report that heretics are 
 dwelling ; and there shall compel three or more 
 men of credible testimony, or if it shall seem expe- 
 dient, the whole neighborhood, to swear, that if any 
 one shall know any heretics there, or any persons 
 holding secret conventicles, or differing from the or- 
 dinary conversation, life and morals of the faithful, 
 he shall endeavor to point them out to the bishop. 
 But the bishop himself shall convoke the accused into 
 his presence, who, unless they shall clear themselves 
 of the crime alleged against them, or, if after hav- 
 ing cleared themselves they shall relapse into their 
 former perfidy, let them be punished according to 
 the canons. But if any of them, with damnable 
 obstinacy, rejecting the obligation of an oath, shall, 
 perhaj s, bo unwilling to swear, let them on that 
 very ground be reckoned as heretics. 
 
 " We will, therefore, and command, and in virtue 
 of obedience strictly enjoin, that for the due per- 
 formance of these things, the bishops shall diligently 
 watch throughout their dioceses, if they wish to es-
 
 THE WEARING 007. 241 
 
 cape canonical vengeance ; for if any bishop shalj 
 have been negligent, or remiss, in purifying his dio- 
 cese from the leaven of heretical pravity, when it 
 shall appear by certain proofs, let him be deposed 
 from his episcopal office, and let another fit person 
 be substituted in his place, who may be bo.h willing 
 and able to confound heretical pravity." 
 
 The most cursory perusal of this document can 
 scarcely fail to excite astonishment at the masterly 
 skill with which it is framed in reference to the sin- 
 gle object in view : a more detailed examination will 
 reveal such deep thought, contrivance and perfection 
 of cruel craft as may rarely be met with in the com- 
 plicated machinery of human crime. Here we see 
 the quarry marked for destruction, surrounded on 
 all sides, pressed closer and closer together in the 
 helplessness of public exposure ; every possible av- 
 enue of escape barred up ; and the victims ready to 
 be singled out successively for destruction at the 
 will of their slaughterers. This canon was no newly- 
 devised plan of de Signi's ; he had acted upon it for 
 a long course of years, with deadly success ; and 
 now, as if conscious that his end was not far distant, 
 he endowed the Church with this rich device, that 
 Ihe mischief might survive him, and prevail against 
 the people of God even to the end of that anti-chris- 
 tian empire which still exists, and gathers daily fresh 
 supplies of vigor, preparing to reassert its terrible 
 dominion over us. 
 
 In the first clause of the canon, we find a refer- 
 21
 
 242 THE WEARING OUT. 
 
 encc made to the faith as already set forth as ortho- 
 dox : lliis included the whole system of papal abom- 
 ination ; for though the doctrine of an actual change 
 in the substance of the bread and wine had for some, 
 time been enforced as an article of belief, it was this 
 Council that established the monstrous figment, 
 under the newly-coined name of Transubstantiation. 
 All who should question any point of the Romish 
 creed are here denounced as heretics, and at once 
 condemned to be left to the secular power ; that is 
 to say, to the common executioner. All the rest 
 provide for their discovery and seizure. 
 
 But some may be merely suspected, no proof be- 
 ing adducible of their heresy : these are, on any 
 vague charge or surmise of the sort, to be laid under 
 the curse of the Church, until they prove their in- 
 nocence or make their peace by some great gift, 
 proportioned to their means. One year is allowed 
 for this, after which they become subject to capital 
 punishment; and every prince, potentate, magistrate, 
 land-owner, all who hold property, or exercise offi- 
 cial power, must be bound by a solemn oath to use 
 every effort for the extermination of such heretics 
 within their respective jurisdictions. Temporal 
 lords, under which title are included all the kings 
 and emperors of Christendom, are placed under the 
 suiveillance of their metropolitans, to whom is com- 
 mitted the power of excommunicating them, should 
 they show any symptom of reluctance in this exter- 
 minating work ; if, at the year's end the tempo?'aj
 
 THE WEARIJNfi OUT. 243 
 
 ruler has not given the required satisfaction, by 
 drawing the sword on his own subjects, he is to be 
 reported to the Pope, whose part it is to absolve 
 his people from their allegiance, and to make over 
 his territories to the first invader, who closes with 
 the pontiff's terms. In our day, this menace falls 
 but lightly on the ear : far different it was in the 
 times of the crusaders far different it will yet be, 
 if Rome pursues much farther her present unresisted 
 course of aggrandizement. 
 
 The temporal lords being thus assured of excom- 
 munication, deposition, and utter destruction, should 
 they fail in carrying out to the uttermost the san- 
 guinary will of the Church, we next find, after a 
 short clause assuring eternal life to all who shall 
 make war upon them, how suspected believers iu 
 the innocence, receivers and defenders of the per- 
 sons, and abettors of the deeds of God's people, are 
 to be dealt with. It is of great moment to mark 
 this : they always are, comparatively, a little flock 
 in the midst of an ungodly world, and their security, 
 humanly speaking, lies in the toleration extended to 
 them by the great mass who themselves are aliens 
 from God, naturally disposed to hate the righteous, 
 but restrained and providentially induced to offer 
 them no harm, or even to embrace their cause, 
 though not on scriptural grounds, when they are as- 
 sailed by persecution. Such was especially the case 
 with those against whom this atrocious decree was 
 directly pointed in its author's time ; and it is mar*
 
 244 THE WEARING OUT. 
 
 vellous with what settled purpose, what consummate 
 management he provides against the contingency. 
 A brother, for instance, not himself walking in the 
 same good way, might feel loth to betray, to de- 
 nounce, to deliver up to torture and to death, the 
 companion of his infancy, his own mother's son: 
 should he fail to do it, what follows ? on the first 
 suspicion, excommunication ; and after a while, the 
 brand of infamy : suspension from every office, the 
 deprivation of every means of subsistence, inability 
 to bequeathe to his children what he may have, or to 
 avail himself of any inheritance that may fall to his 
 lot. In this matter we see the fierce persecuting 
 pope, like a bloodhound on the track, following up 
 his prey with a fiery eagerness that nothing can 
 control. The criminal, the wretch who shall dare to 
 screen his brother from the rack and flame, is to be 
 a spectacle and an abhorrence to all men. He is to 
 be compelled to pay whatever is demanded of him 
 by any profligate claimant, but he cannot sue in a 
 debt, however just ; if a judge, he may not sit ; if 
 an advocate, he may not plead ; if a notary, his in- 
 struments are void ; and so of whatsoever calling he 
 may follow. Starvation is his lot. Moreover, those 
 who shall fail to aid in thus heaping ruin on the 
 heads of the suspected defenders of suspected here- 
 tics, are to share their sentence of excommunication ; 
 to be denied the sacraments, without which they be- 
 lieve they cannot possibly be saved ; to have their 
 alms rejected, the purchase-money for heaven ; and
 
 THE WEARING OUT. 245 
 
 when dead, to be cast out as dogs, denied what a 
 Romanist holds so indispensable Christian burial. 
 Surely the wit of man never devised a more perfect 
 system of frightful espionage. But more is in re- 
 serve : full well was the efficacy of a preached Gos- 
 pel known to its enemies, and so long as men were 
 allowed to set forth a crucified Saviour as the solr 
 hope of the sinner, so long would sinners be found 
 to lay hold on that hope, and to cast away the jug- 
 gling deceits of Rome. Accordingly, summary pun- 
 ishment was decreed, on a gross perversion of Scrip- 
 ture, to all such teachers : no year's probation being 
 here allowed, but "suitable," that is to say, capital, 
 punishment inflicted, unless they immediately re- 
 pented ; which, of course, could only be manifested 
 by a public recantation of all that they had taught. 
 Then comes the inquisitorial proceeding, soon after- 
 wards carried to such deadly perfection under Dom- 
 inic and his friars, who, together with the Francis- 
 cans, received the confirmation of their establish- 
 ment from this very council. Under the direction 
 of the prelates, a cordon of spies is drawn round 
 every spot where even by possibility heresy may 
 lurk ; and should any individual hesitate to swear 
 that he will become an informer against his own 
 flesh and blood, he is for that reason to be accounted 
 a heretic himself. One only possible hope seemed 
 to remain for the hunted victim, and that a very for- 
 lorn one ; but while it existed it must be provided 
 againiit. So great an anomaly as a merciful man in 
 21*
 
 ^46 THE WEARING OUT. 
 
 the office of a Romish prelate could scarcely be 
 looked for ; but if one who was capable of compas 
 sionate feelings should be there found, or if God in 
 his goodness touched the heart of a persecutor with 
 compunction, the work might experience some hin- 
 drance the escape of some forlorn believer might 
 be connived at. Accordingly, these higher orders 
 must be reminded that they themselves were but 
 the vassals of " the Servant of the servants of God," 
 the meek and pious pontiff: and that any tiling 
 which he, on the report of those secret spies by 
 whom the other spies were surrounded, might con- 
 strue into negligence, would be visited by the thun- 
 ders, the terrors of which they well knew ; and in- 
 volve them in the fate of their appointed victims. 
 
 Such was, such IS, the law bequeathed as a legacy 
 by Lotharius de Signi to the Church of which he 
 was the head, and remaining in full force to this day. 
 The papacy considers as its lawful subjects all who 
 have been baptized into the Christian faith, whether 
 the profess allegiance to Rome or not : we, our 
 Queen, our nobles, our countrymen, are all regarded 
 as in a state of prosperous rebellion, fully amenable 
 to these laws, and to be visited with their direst 
 vengeance whensoever Protestantism becomes the 
 weaker party. Meanwhile, we will continue our 
 narrative, and endeavor to show with what fatal effi 
 cacy the system wrought its cruel purpose against 
 the half-reviving Church of Christ in the district 
 of J <angue<!oc. We left them, indeed, in a stat
 
 THK WEARING OUT. 24" 
 
 of seeming extinction, but the wily Pope judged 
 rightly when he foresaw, in the dim future, new 
 spectres rising, and fresh victims ready to yield 
 their lives up for the testimony of Jesus ; and against 
 them, to the end of time, he thus prepared a ma- 
 chinery of destruction. 
 
 We have already noticed that, lamentable, .nd, 
 seemingly complete, as was the overthrow of the 
 Church of Christ in the country of the Albigeois, it 
 pleased God that a temporary revival should take 
 place, ere the light was utterly extinguished. The 
 Council of Lateran had, as we have seen, labored to 
 turn once more the torrent of crusading violence 
 towards Palestine, which, for various causes, was a 
 more convenient field whither to dispatch their vas- 
 sal-kings and armies. At the same time, they heard 
 and discussed an appeal from Count Raymond, who 
 urgently pleaded his cause, and besought the restitu- 
 tion of his rightful possessions. S6me favor was 
 shown to him, but de Montfort's usurpation of his 
 principal titles and dominions was confirmed ; thus 
 rendering the sanguinary conqueror doubly secure in 
 his position. It was to this, principally, that the re- 
 appearance of true religion in places whence it 
 seemed to have been wholly and finally exiled, might 
 be traced. De Montfort and Arnold renewed their 
 contest for the sovereignty of Narbonne, in the spirit 
 of men who have only to divide the spoil, fearing no 
 farthei bar to their acquisitions. The count forcibly
 
 248 THE WEARING OUT. 
 
 planted his standard of authoi ty m Narbonne; 
 (he Archbisliop excommunicated him ; de Montfort 
 laughed at his ban, and threw down his fortifications ; 
 and in this way the several parties became so occu- 
 pied, and found so much for their respective followers 
 to do, that the persecuted church lifted up its head 
 again in the wilderness, which, spiritually at least, be- 
 gan to rejoice and to blossom as the rose, before the 
 divided enemy had leisure to cast a look towards it. 
 Such as were of the army, of course flocked round 
 the standards to which they were attached : the 
 warlike Archbishop did not lack adherents of this 
 caste ; nor was the excommunicated layman without 
 a zealous band of ecclesiastical partisans, some goad- 
 ed on by envy of Arnold's high exaltation, and re- 
 sentment at his intolerable pride ; others allured by 
 the good things that de Montfort held in his gift. 
 The disunion was general ; while the third party, 
 the rightful lords of what these robbers were fight- 
 ing over, secretly strengthened the hands of their 
 loyal retainers, prepared to take advantage of any 
 favorable turn in the current of events. 
 
 It was then that, filled with holy zeal, the teach- 
 ers who had been driven from their flocks returned 
 to look after ';hose few sheep in the wilderness who 
 had hitherto hidden themselves, but now ventured 
 to come forth at the shepherd's well-known voice. 
 Then mio-ht be seen the father of those fair twin 
 
 O 
 
 girls, the smile of pleasure on his lip, the tear of 
 fond regret, not unmixed with remorse, trembling in
 
 THE WEARING OtTT, 248 
 
 fits eye, ami the lurking shade of watchful doubt yet 
 hugering on his countenance as the frequent, rapid 
 ht the en trance -door) listening with deep 
 to the pathetic exhortations of the now 
 welcomed preacher, as he set before the children 
 the preciousness of those truths for which their 
 mother had died. How changed is the expressicn 
 U those young faces, since they importuned the 
 Deeming pedler for a sight of his glittering wares! 
 Humble, thoughtful, earnest, and full of deepest 
 reverence, their countenances bespeak emotions that 
 the teacher confidently trusts have been excited by 
 the Holy Spirit ; and he doubts not but that, if tribu- 
 lation and persecution should again arise because of 
 the word, the rescued lambs before him, and their 
 heart-smitten father, will be found confessing before 
 men Him whom they were taught in earliest infancy 
 to love, as the gracious friend of little children, and 
 to whom they now come, with a better understand- 
 ing of the blessed privilege, to take his yoke upon 
 them, and to learn of him. 
 
 Many a lowly cottage displayed some similar 
 scene ; and in mansions of more lordly aspect ad- 
 mission was sometimes found for the wayfaring 
 instructor of former days, and more than connived 
 at by those in authority. The latter instances were, 
 however, less frequent : the principal work was car- 
 ried on in rural districts, or in the more obscure 
 quarters of such towns as were not occupied by the 
 enemjf 's 'orces. In every place, it appeared
 
 250 THE WfcAHirsG OtTT. 
 
 God had still a remnant to be summoicd ovt of 
 Great Babylon, and wheresoever even in the sonl 
 of one of the humblest peasants or artisans a good 
 work had been begun, there, we well know, the Lord 
 would finish it. Kings and their mailed armies, pre- 
 lates with their far more formidable hosts of cowled 
 priests, were but unconscious instruments, carrying 
 out the ends that were of God appointed, and which 
 they especially labored to defeat ; even de Montfort 
 and Arnold Amalric were now uniting in the strange 
 work of reviving the Gospel, by attracting the atten- 
 tion and engaging the services of those who should 
 have been employed in watching against the dread- 
 ed heresy, instead of taking arms respectively on 
 behalf of the knight and the priest. 
 
 Sweet it was, and deeply, awfully solemn, the re- 
 assembling of some scattered little congregation in 
 their secret nook of meeting, around the teacher 
 whom they never again expected to see : some 
 scarcely even daring to desire it. There were va- 
 cant places in those assemblages the former occu- 
 pants of which had ascended from the blazing fires 
 of martyrdom to their prepared seats in heaven ; 
 and never had the union been so perfect, never had 
 the communion been so deeply realized between the 
 militant and the triumphant church, as now that the 
 father lifted his tearful eyes from the place where 
 formerly sat his listening child, the husband from 
 that where the wife of his bosom once reclined, 
 the loving daughter from the seat on which long
 
 TttE WKAttMrt Offt. 251 
 
 rested her revered parent, to seek that heaven, that 
 holy city, the Ne\r Jerusalem, as yet too far above 
 the reach of mortal ken, there to recognize, as it 
 Were, the form so long beloved on earth ; with the 
 delicious assurance in their souls concerning them, 
 " They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any 
 more, neither shall the sun light on them nor any 
 heat. But the Lamb which is in the midst of the 
 throne shall feed them, and shall lead them to foun- 
 tains of living waters ; and God shall wipe away all 
 tears from their eyes." 
 
 It was thus that many a weak hand was strength* 
 ened, many a feeble knee confirmed, and many a 
 wandering foot brought back to the straight path of 
 sanctified suffering, leading to eternal glory. Some 
 there were, who, like Esau, might have been tempt- 
 ed to sell their heavenly birthright, if not for a f;iir 
 mess of the world's attractive pottage, yet for pres- 
 ent security from sufferings that flesh feels it very 
 hard to brave : these had the glorious reality of 
 unseen and eternal things so vividly set before them, 
 combined with the certainty that some whom they 
 had dearly loved were even then actually partaking 
 in the blessedness described, that it became a won- 
 der to themselves how they could ever have thought 
 of compromising or of concealing the faith wherein 
 they stood ; and martyrdom in any shape was a 
 welcome prospect seeing to what it formed the vis- 
 ta. It was the seed-time of a second harvest, which 
 the Lord prepared to gather into his garner.
 
 252 THE WEARING OUT. 
 
 It may be asked by what means were the hated 
 heretics secured from the vigilant proceedings of 
 Ihose who had long lain in wait for them ? It must 
 be remembered that these harmless people of God 
 were in reality hated by none but the wolves of 
 Rome. Their neighbors and countrymen had al- 
 ways acted towards them with the utmost forbear- 
 ance, amounting indeed to open, unequivocal, en- 
 couragement ; and it was only by visiting these with 
 the most tremendous punishments for such conniv- 
 ance, that they were reluctantly induced to with- 
 draw their countenance from men whom they se- 
 cretly revered. They became spies only under the 
 consciousness that other spies surrounded them, 
 eager to make their supposed or presumed defection 
 a means of seizing on what little was lefi to them of 
 their native possessions ; if not of bringing their 
 lives into peril. They knew nothing experimentally 
 of the transforming power of the religion, the exte- 
 rior loveliness of which they could not but admire ; 
 nor saw any great harm in compelling its professors 
 to disguise their real principles, while their avowal 
 exposed both parties alike to danger. It was there- 
 fore, a friendly, and a half-reluctant coercion that 
 the class in question, the natives and citizens f the 
 provinces, exercised over the small company of be- 
 lievers still left among them ; and no marvel if they 
 speedily relaxed in their uncongenial employment, 
 when they saw the attention of the more dreaded 
 party the clergy, their retainers, and the strangers
 
 THE WEARING O'JT. 253 
 
 brought into the land by the crusade, so completely 
 engiossed by the contest of de Montfort with the 
 Archbishop, as to leave them little leisure and less 
 inclination to trouble themselves with what they be- 
 lieved to be not only a conquered but an extermi- 
 nated foe. 
 
 By such means did the Lord revive his work in 
 the poor persecuted church of the Albigenses ; but 
 it was only for the bringing to glory of all his elect 
 in that place. He saw fit to deliver his saints into 
 the power of the Beast, and the present breathing- 
 time was but preparatory to the great sacrifice still 
 to be made to the papal Baal. 
 
 The first movement towards a renewal of the hor- 
 rors of war was made by the son of Count Raymond. 
 The Council of Lateran had conceded to these two 
 princes a portion of their ancient dominions, not in- 
 cluding Toulouse, which with other possessions to a 
 vast extent was confirmed to de Montfort. Young 
 Raymond conceived himself to have obtained at 
 parting the sanction of the pope to an attempt for 
 the recovery of his inheritance by reconquest ; nor 
 is it at all unlikely that the pontitf was heartily ac- 
 quiescent in the matter, for he saw the whole coun- 
 try in danger of being contested by two men, one 
 of whom, though the sworn champion of the Church, 
 was in arms against that branch of it located in h's 
 own territory ; and the other, albeit an ecclesias- 
 tic of most fanatic character, had become little 
 short of an open rebel agaiust Rome, in the eager
 
 ^54 THE WliAKlXG OUT. 
 
 pursuit of worldly aggrandizement. Innocent III, 
 could not fail to see how favorable to the exhausted 
 flock of Christ such a pause must be ; and since 
 the two Raymonds had made unbounded submission 
 to the Church, giving every possible guarantee for 
 their future obedience in whatsoever the Vatican 
 might decree, it could not but be desirable to see such 
 a third party in the field, to startle the others, and 
 revive their dormant zeal against heresy ; especially 
 as the pope well knew he could at pleasure crush 
 again the unhappy house of Raymond. 
 
 Thus encouraged, Raymond the younger, who 
 was then barely nineteen years old, took the field at 
 the head of an army which was raised as in a mo- 
 ment by his welcome summons ; and so successful 
 was his opening campaign, that de Montfort, roused 
 from his security, saw the peril at once. His expe- 
 rienced tactics, however, proved too much for the 
 ardent young commander, whom he prevailed on to 
 conclude a truce with him before he had heard the 
 tidings already communicated to de Montfort, that 
 Toulouse had thrown off the yoke of the usurper 
 openly proclaiming their lawful and still beloved 
 sovereign, Raymond VI., who, while his son en- 
 gaged the enemy at home, had raised an army in 
 the northern provinces of Spain, and was rapidly 
 marching at their head towards his ancient capital. 
 But Simon having so far outwitted the son, ad- 
 vanced with his whole collected force to meet the 
 father ; and Raymond, the newly-sworn bondsman
 
 THE WEARING TOT. 255 
 
 of Rome, had not courage to face him : his army 
 dispersed themselves at once ; and de Montfort 
 marched on to take vengeance on Toulouse. 
 
 All the writers of that period, and of the Ro- 
 mish creed in general, agree in describing Toulouse 
 as the very hot- bed of heresy : and we have seen, 
 in the earlier part of this narrative, how openly, 
 generously, and firmly its citizens upheld the cause 
 of the assailed flock. Their treatment of Bishop 
 Fouquet, too, will be remembered : too well was it 
 remembered by that blood-thirsty priest on the 
 present occasion ! It appears probable that, from 
 motives of policy, de Montfort might have acted 
 with a show of forbearance towards this noble and 
 powerful city ; but Fouquet, as his own historians 
 boast, prevailed with his merciless counsels over the 
 dictates of a wiser policy ; and having gained his 
 point with the commander, he re-entered the city, 
 addressing the deluded people as a flock for whom 
 he tenderly cared ; and appealing to the Most High 
 in attestation of the perfect sincerity in which he 
 sought to insure their safety, he prevailed on a small 
 company of the most considerable citizens to repair 
 to the general, to make submission in the name of 
 the rest, and to promise allegiance for the future. 
 He positively guarranteed to them a favorable re- 
 ception and indulgent hearing; and thus assured 
 they went forth to the camp, where de Montfort, at 
 Fouquet's suggestion, had prepared heavy fetters of 
 iron, with which they were immediately loaded.
 
 25B THE WEARING OUT. 
 
 The first party had not long been gone, when 
 Fouquet induced another, of equal rank, to follow, 
 for the purpose of seconding their plea. These 
 were in like manner loaded with chains ; and by the 
 crafty wickedness of this unprincipled man, above 
 eighty of the first nobles and gentlemen of Toulouse 
 had been delivered into de Montfort's merciless 
 hands, before the treachery was discovered. Satis- 
 fied that their embassy was successful, the citizens 
 proceeded in larger numbers to tender their submis- 
 sion, when they met a townsman who had escaped 
 before the irons could be placed on him, and thus 
 became acquainted with the infamous device. The 
 whole city flew to arms, determined to defend them- 
 selves to the last ; but a number of de Montfort's 
 soldiers had already gained entrance, no doubt by 
 Fouquet's means, into the city ; and every savage 
 excess that could be perpetrated against the most 
 defenceless class of its inhabitants had been carried 
 on in the more remote and least populous parts of 
 the town, to an appalling extent before any check 
 could be given to their atrocities. They were at 
 length put to the sword or driven forth ; and Simon 
 himself heading the flower of his mounted knights 
 was thrice repulsed with great slaughter in three 
 several attacks on as many bodies of the gallant 
 citizens. The threat, however, of putting to instant 
 death his eighty prisoners, produced a greater im- 
 pression .han his arms could do on the Toulousians: 
 and heie again Fouquet interposed, bringing with
 
 THE WEARING OUT. 257 
 
 him another ecclesiastic of note, and both pledging 
 their most solemn oath before God, that if the citi- 
 zens yielded to the terms proposed by de Montfort, 
 their brethren should be restored to liberty, their 
 rights confirmed, and their personal safety seemed. 
 Little as was the reliance to be placed on the oaths of 
 such men, still as no possible hope existed of saving 
 their friends, cr, in the end, their city, from the terrible 
 vengeance of the great crusader, they at last agreed 
 to the terms, which included the laying down of 
 their arms, and delivering up every stronghold to 
 Simon's forces. This done, the faith was kept with 
 them that Rome boasts of keeping with herelics : 
 all their principal men were seized, fettered, and 
 sent, together with the former eighty victirro, to 
 perish miserably in the dungeons of various cities, 
 occupied by de Montfort. After execuiir/j or.ch 
 vengeance as his own cruel will, and the equally 
 savage bishop, suggested, on the disarmed and help- 
 less citizens, he laid on them a fine, which was sure 
 to reduce the wealthiest to indigence, and left them 
 with a menace, that if such imposition was not strictly 
 paid, their city should be given to the flames, and a 
 general massacre sweep its inhabitants from the 
 earth. 
 
 To what extent the Albigenses, as believers, suf- 
 fered in these transactions, we have no record ; but 
 as Fouquet was the presiding genius of the perse- 
 cution, we may be well assured that he selected fof 
 destruction as many as he could. Wheresoever the 
 82*
 
 259 71IE WEARING ODT. 
 
 name of Christ was honored, and the dark apostasy 
 rejected, there he would certainly point the sword, 
 though it does not appear that on this occasion the 
 fires of martyrdom were rekindled. The Toulous- 
 ians were treated rather as rebels against Simon de 
 Montfort than against the Pope ; and the affair 
 proves how quickly de Montfort was merging the 
 character of the Church's champion in that of the 
 martial plunderer and temporal prince. Yet he 
 carefully maintained his claim to the former distinc- 
 tion ; and it was but a short time previous to these 
 events that he had made a progress, to do homage 
 to the king of France, during the whole of which, 
 little short of divine honors were paid him, alike by 
 kings and prelates, as the anointed leader and de- 
 fender of what they most impiously designated the 
 armies and the cause of the Lord of hosts.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 THE events of several years succeeding that of 
 the memorable Council of Lateran, afford us no clue 
 by which to trace the footsteps of the flock, beyond 
 such glimmerings as we have noticed, of avi unex- 
 tinguished light existing amid the thick darkness. 
 Those years were marked by much stirring incident 
 m the world : the Eastern Crusades revived in all 
 their original enthusiasm, completely drawing off 
 public attention from the devastated provinces where 
 Simon de Montfort struggled to retain what his 
 cruel violence had grasped ; and where Fouquet and 
 his unprincipled associates still kept up the war-cry 
 of " Heresy," as a pretext for aiding the sanguinary 
 conqueror. The career of the latter, was, however, 
 near its close ; already had the terrible and wily 
 enemy of Christ's Church been called from the seat 
 of his supreme earthly dominion to appear before 
 that Jesus whom he had so fiercely persecuted, and 
 to render an account of his evil deeds. Innocent 
 III. was cut off in the prime and pride of life, leav- 
 ing to another, perhaps not les? willing, but cer-
 
 200 CONCLUSION. 
 
 tainly less able hand, the ta^k of wearing out and 
 destroying the saints of the Most High ; and the 
 extinction of that master-spirit was felt throughout 
 the world, as an event that must needs change the 
 general aspect. To de Montfort, the pretendeJ ser- 
 vant of the papacy, who in reality served none but 
 himself, it mattered little who ruled in the Vatican, 
 so long as he had an army of good fighting men 
 under his command ; but there is no doubt tha-t the 
 removal of their pontifical oppressor produced an 
 exhilarating effect on the Languedocians, and on 
 their chiefs. The Count of Foix in particular was 
 strongly suspected of holding the doctrines that 
 Rome most abhors ; and his wife openly professed 
 them ; but the character of a religious war had 
 been well nigh lost sight of, nothing but ;he fanati- 
 cism of the ecclesiastics keeping alive its semblance. 
 Toulouse, exasperated by the perfidy and barbar- 
 ity it had recently experienced at the hands of Simon, 
 received once more its ancient lord, Raymond, with 
 a fixed determination of upholding his rights. It 
 was not long before powerful reinforcements were 
 poured into the city, headed by the principal chiefs 
 and nobles of the surrounding territories ; so that 
 Simon was compelled to hasten with all speed, in 
 his wonted assurance of being able to put down 
 every opposition by the strength of his arm. His 
 troops, however, contained many Avho had enrolled 
 themselves only to escape suspicion and consequent 
 destruction, and thtse immediately deserted him fol
 
 CONCLUSION. 261 
 
 tii<; standards of their respective chiefs. Not o few 
 of his mercenary soldiers, panic-struck at tins unex- 
 pected turn of affairs, abruptly left him also ; and it 
 Wh.s with a diminished host, though partially 
 strengthened by a junction with his brother Guy, 
 tlat lie approached the walls of Toulouse, ere jet 
 the eager citizens had completed their rebuilding and 
 the repairs of their ruined fortifications. Against 
 them, de Montfort put in practice his utmost skill, 
 power, and persevering resolution, but in vain. 
 Many months were passed in pressing a hopeless 
 siege, and in making assaults that were always re- 
 pulsed with severe loss to the assailants ; until mat- 
 ters became so critical, that Fouquet hastened into 
 France to preach up a new crusade : and Simon, 
 dispatching his Countess to solicit aid from Philip 
 Augustus, himself made a very urgent appeal to the 
 Vatican. It was, indeed, become necessary to re- 
 kindle the old embers of religious persecution into 
 a blaze, in order to preserve to him the prize that 
 he had proudly thought his own 
 
 But before the result of these applications could 
 be known, the vengeance of God overtook the crim- 
 inal. With his usual show of pious zeal, he was 1 
 attending the service of the Church, on the 25th of 
 June, 1218, when news was brought to him there 
 that the besieged had made a sally and taken his 
 favorite machine, " the cat," which they were de- 
 stroying by fire. Mass was then being celebrated, 
 and he remained till the moment when the wafer
 
 262 coNCLtstoN. 
 
 was elevated, to which the monstrous dog/tia of 
 transubstantiation had been formally affixed by the 
 Lateran Council ; then blasphemously perverting tho 
 language of Scripture, he loudly exclaimed, Lord, 
 " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, 
 for mine eyes have seen thy salvation ;" and with 
 this awful testimony to his idolatrous belief, he left 
 the church, to superintend the retaking of the mur* 
 derous machine. In this he succeeded ; but at the 
 same moment a ponderous stone cast from the walls, 
 smote the defyer of the living God on the forehead, 
 and laid him low in death. 
 
 It was not till after a month's protracted but 
 fruitless efforts to carry the siege to a successful 
 termination, that Amaury de Montfort took up his 
 father's corpse, and bore it over the blood-stained 
 track of his long advance, to that memorable spot, 
 Carcassonne, where the young and noble Count 
 Raymond Roger had been ensnared by treachery 
 and committed to the hands of one TV ho, after a long 
 and dreary imprisonment in a dungeon, ended by 
 murdering him. Hither the grim and ghastly body 
 was brought in all the mingled pomp and pride of 
 military and regal parade ; and when at the last day 
 of awful judgment the graves .ire opened, and earth 
 and sea yield up their dead, from the crumbling 
 fragments of Carcassonne will come forth tho 
 wretched Simon de Montfort. 
 
 His character and his career, were, indeed, most 
 fearfully pre-eminent in guilt. The wild enthusiasm
 
 203 
 
 of the age that really thought to do God service by 
 slaying his saints, the chivalrous spirit that loved to 
 conquer for conquest's sake, and courted the plaudits 
 that formed the victor's proudest meed, these be- 
 longed not to de Montfort. Dark, stern, cold, self- 
 wh, calculating, and with that revolting peculiarity 
 which distinguishes some few beasts of prey, the 
 wanton prolongation of the victim's sufferings, while 
 the monster gloats over its pangs, he stood compar- 
 atively alone, supreme in cruelty, where all were 
 cruel ; and never was he known to yield his own sav- 
 age will, save when some prompter, like Fouquet, sug- 
 gested a refinement of treachery and barbarity be- 
 yond what he had himself conceived. The selection 
 of such a man to bear the title of the Church's most 
 trusted and most favored champion, speaks volumes 
 as to what that Church itself must have been ; while 
 imagination shrinks from pursuing the track of his 
 blood-stained course, rending, mangling, and destroy- 
 ing without mercy old and young, the gray-haired 
 sire of successive generations, and the helpless babe 
 f yesterday ; the true worshipper of God and the 
 oval slave of Rome who dared to cast a look of 
 compassion on his more enlightened brother ; aye, 
 und the undoubted devotee of that very religion for 
 which Simon professed to combat, if by including 
 him under the commor charge of heresy, the plun- 
 derer might destroy him, and seize on his inherit- 
 ance. We cannot follow such a wretch as this to 
 his final accovint : we can but ponder on the fearful
 
 264 CONCLUSION. 
 
 truth that such, ir its unrestrained workings, is the 
 Mystery of Iniquitj ; such the character of that 
 Great Babylon on whom vengeance will ere long 
 fall ; and from the contemplation gather fresh en- 
 ergy for the reiterated call, " Come out of her, my 
 people ! be ye not partakers of her sins, that ye re- 
 ceive not of her plagues." 
 
 Amaury de Montfort, determined to retain what 
 his father had Avon, exerted himself effectually alike 
 at the Court of Rome and that of France, to obtain 
 the needful assistance for another crusade ; of course 
 on the old pretext of extirpating heresy, but in reality 
 to -attack and to slay the native possessors of a soil over 
 which he desired to reign supreme ; and who, though 
 perfectly sincere in their allegiance to the papacy, 
 still preferred the mild rule of their rightful and 
 half-enlightened lords to the sway of a bigot, dark, 
 fierce, and pitiless, as they had good reason to fear 
 a de Montfort must be. This expedition was headed 
 by Prince Louis of France, as a meritorious service 
 before God ; and very many were the lives sacri- 
 ficed of those whom we cannot number with the 
 saints, the. objects of the war made by the Beast, in 
 the person of Innocent III. The castle of Mar- 
 maude was an important post ; and to this the 
 crusaders laid siege, until the inhabitants offered 
 to capitulate, and Prince Louis willingly granted 
 them permission lo leave the place in safety, reject- 
 ing the council of the Bishop of Saintes, that he 
 shouk 1 seizo, burn, and otherwise slay the whole
 
 CONCLUSION. 265 
 
 body, civil and military, as heretics and npos(ates. 
 But wha: the French prince could nut bring himself 
 to perpetrate, was done by hands more experienced 
 in the work of treachery and slaughter. While a 
 few of the principal chiefs and knights were going 
 through the form of surrendering themselves in the 
 tent of Louis, Amaury de Montfort, ftt the head of 
 his troops, privately entered the unguarded city, 
 wiiere of five thousand inhabitants, of all ages and 
 conditions, they left not one alive. Every man, 
 woman, and child, was butchered before Louis 
 could interpose to stay the work of death. He ex- 
 pressed displeasure ; but it was not for a mere 
 secular prince to condemn what had been done un- 
 der ecclesiastical sanction ; and leaving the reeking 
 heap of carnage to send up to heaven its fearful cry 
 against them, the crusaders prepared once more to 
 assault Toulouse. They were further encouraged to 
 this attempt by the publicly recorded oath of the 
 people's legate, who had solemnly sworn " that in 
 the said Toulouse should remain neither man, wo- 
 man, boy, nor girl, but that all should be put to 
 death, without sparing any, old or young ; and that 
 in all the city there should not remain one stone 
 upon another, but all should be demolished and 
 thrown down. This pious oath, by the immediate 
 representative of infallibility, infused new courage 
 into the crusaders, and excited no small dread in the 
 bosom of the miserable Count Raymond, who con- 
 tinued fast bound in the cHins of superstition, pjir- 
 23
 
 266 CONCLUSION. 
 
 suing ..is anomalous course of unbounded submission 
 to the spiritual thraldom of Rome; and protection, 
 so far as it still existed to be protected, to what she 
 denounces it an unpardonable sin even to tolerate. 
 Still Raymond had many brave and faithful allies, 
 who threw reinforcements into the city in great 
 abundance ; while the dovotion of magistrates, bur- 
 gesses, and people to their hereditary ruler and his 
 son was unbounded. No sign of intimidation ap- 
 peared, but the boldest preparations for a vigorous 
 defence ; and after some able but fruitless attempts 
 to carry a part of the outworks, Prince Louis with 
 the remains of his army, gladly retired ; accompa- 
 nied not, only by the disappointed Amaury de Mont- 
 fort, but also by the legate, Bertrand, whose piou 
 vow was baffled as effectually as that of the devotees 
 of old, who were sworn " neither to eat or drink till 
 they had slain Paul." 
 
 But where, during this while, were those who in 
 life and doctrine were followers of Paul, even as he 
 followed Christ ? They were still scattered about 
 the provinces, taken advantage of the temporary di- 
 version of theii merciless foes' from the work of 
 direct persecution ; confirming each other in the 
 faith, and deriving new strength to resist alike the 
 allurements and the terrors of Rome, from if hat 
 they had beheld of the practical workings of that 
 cruelly fierce and anti-christian sprit, which stands 
 in every point opposed to the peace and love of the 
 Gospel. Gradually, the numbe* 'f those who had
 
 CONCLUSION. 26T 
 
 still lingered in their native valleys decreased more 
 and more. A sylums were found in other lan.ds, where 
 compassion for their unparalleled sufferings, respect 
 for their blameless characters, and not unfrequentlj- 
 a happy curiosity to learn the particulars of a faith 
 that bore such fruits, inclined the inhabitants to re- 
 ceive and to shelter them. In this way was the 
 seed of divine truth spread far abroad, even by the 
 same wind that prostrated the parent tree on its 
 native soil ; and to the teaching of those expatriated 
 confessors of Provence may be directly traced the 
 germ that appeared in its maturity in the persons of 
 John Huss, and Jerome of Prague. 
 
 It was in 1219 that the last hope of Amaury de 
 Montfort was baffled before the walls of Toulouse : 
 and in the interval that succeeded, an appearance of 
 revival gladdened the hearts of many who had re- 
 mained at or returned to their former posts. It is 
 on record, that in 1222, a sort of convocation of the 
 Albigensic Church was held in Razez, where up- 
 wards of a hundred of their principal men assem- 
 bled, and in some measure re-organized the dis- 
 persed body, by again appointing preachers and in- 
 structors for the several departments, where the 
 flames of mai tyrdom had consumed together both 
 pastors and flocks ; a few fragments of the latter 
 only remaining to be now re-gathered into their be- 
 loved fold. Beyond this, we have no authority for 
 stating any particulars respecting the Albigensic 
 believers . if they left any written documents, thej
 
 268 CONCLUSION. 
 
 would ultimately fall into the hands of the exter- 
 minating Inquisition, subsequently established in 
 that wretched country under the fierce followers of 
 Dominic ; and it is not to be supposed that sucli 
 dangerous papers would escape the flames kindled 
 for their authors. The opposite party, of course, 
 had nothing to tell, for they kiiew nothing ; or we 
 should have it before us in such exulting annals of 
 martyrdom as Peter de Vaux Cernay supplies up 
 to the death of his patron, Simon de Montfort, with 
 whose career his work closes. We can only in im- 
 agination follow the quiet course of those who had. 
 always found it right for the sake of their kind, tol- 
 erating neighbors, to worship in comparative se- 
 crecy ; and who now on their own account no less 
 than theirs, avoided all open manifestation of the 
 partial revival, beyond what was necessary for the 
 right ordering of their church. Most absurd re- 
 ports were circulaied, even on this slender founda- 
 tion ; even to the assertion that the heretics had, in 
 another kingdom, elected a pope of their own, in 
 opposition to him at Rome ; but to this no one can 
 give credit. Even at the comparatively numerous 
 convocations already alluded to, only three new 
 preachers were ordained, which, considering how 
 lamentably the number of teachers had been dimin- 
 ished by fire and the sword, starvation and exile, 
 Badly proclaims the yet more diminished state of 
 the iei:ovr,red flock. 
 
 Mat jrs wen* tn in this way for the spa:e of scv-
 
 CONCLUSION. 269 
 
 eral years, even to 1226, beforj the t.rch of deso 
 lating war was rekindled in the unhappy provinces. 
 Long before that period Raymond VI. died : ex- 
 hibiting to the last the most servile devotion to Po- 
 pery ; sustaining the character of a broken-hearted 
 penitent towards the enemy who had so relentlessly 
 persecuted him ; and clearly proving how far he 
 was from having received the life-giving rays of 
 that light which, nevertheless, he had long protected 
 and favored. It must be said of him that he delib- 
 erately chose darkness rather than light ; for both 
 were before him ; the latter in its purest radiance, 
 shining amid the agonies of many cruel deaths ; the 
 former in the depth of its most hideous blackness, 
 with its unmasked horrors evermore crossing his 
 path. 
 
 Raymond VII. had exercised the powers of gov- 
 ernment in his father's name, for some time, before 
 death removed the old Count from the scene of vi- 
 cissitude and woe where he had long been a prom- 
 inent actor. This youthful prince showed himself 
 less conscientious towards his subjects than his fa- 
 ther had done : for not only were his protestations 
 of devoted fidelity to the Papacy constantly re- 
 newed ; but he reoeatedly declared his readiness to 
 seek out, to seize, and to punish with the utmost se 
 verity that Rome could desire, all who held the 
 better faith. It availed him little, however; for in 
 1226, at the head of fifty thousand horsemen, and 
 an altogethei innumeiable force, sanctioned by the 
 23*
 
 ?70 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Pope's blessing, accompanied by his legate, and by 
 the veteran traitor and homicide, Fouquet, bishop 
 of Toulouse, (oy the Toulousians themselves called 
 the Bishop of Devils,) we find the King of France, 
 Louis VIII., engaged in a vigorous crusade against 
 the heretics of Albigeois in reality, to deprive his 
 powerful vassal-counts of their possessions, and to 
 secure in his own grasp what had been the grand 
 prize aimed at by Simon de Montfort. 
 
 In the month of June, the king laid siege to the 
 splendid city of Avignon, pressing it with all his 
 forces, during three months unsuccessfully. He is 
 stated to have lost, by pestilence and the sword, 
 twenty thousand men in those three months ; and 
 when at last the place capitulated, it was on terms 
 such as had often been granted, but never be- 
 fore kept by conquering crusaders. In this case, 
 the articles were observed ; and the enormous sacri- 
 fice of life, including the hastening on of the king's 
 own death, brought no real advantage to the invad- 
 ers, although the verbal submission of all the Lan- 
 guedocian nobles was secured by the intimidation 
 produced. But the object of this holy war was well 
 nigh baffled altogether ; for not a single heretic could 
 be found throughout the country which they trav- 
 i-rsed, though Fouquet put forth all his energies, 
 and th r king all his zeal in the search. At length 
 they found at Cannes, near Narbonne, an aged 
 preacher of the Gospel, nimed Peter Isarn, whose 
 infirmities having disabled him from flight, he had
 
 JONCUJSION. 271 
 
 ecreted himself until the diligence of Fouquet dis- 
 covered and dragged him forth. With exulting 
 ceremony, they brought the venerable minister to a 
 mock trial ; and publicly burned him as an accepta- 
 ble offering, if not to the God of heaven, to the foul 
 spirit that delights in making herself " drunk with 
 the blood of His saints." 
 
 From the wide battle-field so long deluged with 
 blood, the principal combatants had passed away. 
 Simon de Montfort mouldered on a spot defiled and 
 devastated by his crimes ; and the unburied corpse 
 of Raymond VI., for which no efforts, no supplica- 
 tions, no lowliness of submission on the part of his 
 son could obtain the privilege of burial from the vin- 
 dictive Church of Rome, presented a monument of un- 
 availing, because inconsistent, adherence to a better 
 
 O' 
 
 cause. Of the great army brought into Languedoc 
 by the French king, it might be said, as of the As- 
 syrians of old, that they 
 
 "Jntouched by the sword, 
 Had melted like snow at the breath of the Lord. 
 
 The monarch himself died .very shortly after his 
 parting exploit of committing to the flames the 
 hoary head, and palsied limbs of Christ's solitary 
 martyr, Peter Isarn ; and while another new occu- 
 pant was busied in settling himself on the throne of 
 the Vatican, and a light-minded, intriguing Queen 
 Regent took Tie re'gns of French government into
 
 272 
 
 her unpractised hand, it might be supposed that 
 the drooping tree, of the Lord's planting among the 
 Provencals would once more revive, lift its head, and 
 extend its branches. But, alas ! the wild boar had 
 wounded it too deeply for such a revival to take 
 place ; and very few, and very feeble, and far-dis- 
 persed asunder, were the remnants of what had 
 once formed so fair and promising a Church. The 
 very pretext of seeking out heretics became scarcely 
 available ; and though Blanche, who now governed 
 for the youthful son of Louis, dispatched a fresh 
 armament against the Count of Toulouse, still nomi- 
 nally to extirpate heresy, it would have been diffi- 
 cult for them to give the semblance of a religious 
 crusade to the expedition, had not those two veteran 
 soldiers of the Evil One, Arnold Amalric and Fou- 
 quet, personally assisted in the campaign. The cas- 
 tle of Becede was taken ; the garrison put to the 
 sword ; and Fouquet had the -joy of discovering 
 within the conquered walls a faithful Albigensic pas- 
 tor, named Girard de la Mote, with a little flock gath- 
 ered about him. They would have fallen undistin- 
 guished in the general slaughter, but the bishop 
 rushed in to their rescue ; and when the work of 
 blood was finished, he proceeded to the still more 
 congenial work of fire. The whole party were sol- 
 emnly arraigned as heretics, condemned, and with 
 every ceremonial that could give additional zest to 
 the scene, burnt alive. Carried back in imagination 
 to those times, and looking, as it were, on the horri-
 
 roN'ci.iistox. 273 
 
 bb cruelties perpetrated by men who made it their 
 brightest merit and highest glory to revel in the 
 death-throes of their unresisting victims, we must 
 feel the glow of natural indignation, heightened by 
 the knowledge that they did these things in the 
 name, and professedly by the authority, and to the 
 honor and praise of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom 
 they thus persecuted, and daily crucified afresh by 
 their enormous crimes ; but passing on from the past 
 to the present, remembering the awful fact, that 
 these murderers are even now in a state of real, con- 
 scious existence, and anticipating the final doom 
 which our own ears will hear pronounced upon them, 
 while our own eyes survey their forms, called forth 
 terrible thought ! to " the resurrection of damna- 
 tion ;" we may well merge all other feelings in that 
 of trembling adoration, as the question appeals to 
 our hearts, " Who made thee to differ?" On the 
 other hand, we know that the spirits of the martyra 
 are with Him who first suffered unto death for 
 them ; and while they stand rejoicing before his 
 throne, the language of their blessed experience is, 
 " Our light afflictions, which were but for a moment, 
 have wrought out for us a far more exceeding and 
 eternal weight of glory." 
 
 Very beautiful is the country where all these 
 scenes of blood took place. The hand of God had 
 decked it with mountain and valley, hill, grove, and 
 plain. Ri^h vineyards mantled the graceful slopes, 
 turning t^eir purple clurters to the ripening sun-
 
 ii\ CONCLUSION. 
 
 beam ; golden harvests waved, ai d bright green 
 pastures stretched away where the open plain pro- 
 longed its level, waterc 1 by rivers, of which the 
 perpetual supplies came bubbling down the rocks, 
 and widened as they ran into new channels. Cas- 
 tles of gigantic size, throwing out their fortifications 
 to an immense extent, crowned by dark woods, while 
 their site, frequently, was on the summit of a pre- 
 cipitous rock, were in keeping with the grandeur ol 
 the natural scenery ; though, alas ! the jealous care 
 with which every part was rendered available for 
 defensive warfare, bespoke the constant expectation 
 of some outburst of man's enmity against his brother 
 man ; and told how far the kingdoms of this world 
 still were from having become the kingdom of our 
 God and of his Christ. Yet, overshadowed as they 
 were by the martial piles of their warlike lords, the 
 simple dwellings of the lowly wore an aspect of con- 
 scious security and peace. The twining flower-stem 
 threw its graceful arms around the rustic porch, 
 and climbed the roof, and laughed in at the little 
 casement ; its lesser kindred spread their many-col- 
 ored forms of beauty on the ground below, inter- 
 mingled with herb and vegetable, and fruit-bearing 
 bush, with scarcely the defensive precaution of a few 
 light stakes to mark the boundary where none were 
 expected to intrude. Nor was the peace, in numer- 
 cus cases, such as results from outward safety and 
 tranquillity alone : in very many of those rural hab- 
 itations dwelt tbe true son of a truo peace, such as
 
 CONCLUSION. 275 
 
 the world has not to give such as the world can 
 never, in life >r in death, take away. That peace 
 rested on the heads and in the hearts of the cottage 
 dwellers, while they looked round on a landscape 
 radiant with smiles, and undreading the approach 
 of a hostile step. It rested there, when the land 
 that had been as the garden of Eden became a 
 waste wilderness ; when the protecting fortress was 
 dismantled, and turned to a heap of smoking, black- 
 ened ruins ; when the soil, uptorn and trampled 
 down again, became a pestilential admixture of cor- 
 rupting flesh and congealed blood, and decomposed 
 vegetable ruin : when the youthful son of many 
 prayers and hopes fell a mangled corpse before the 
 entrance of the dwelling which he vainly sought to 
 guard with his wounded body, and the crash of ruin 
 bespoke the utter demolition of that frail tenement 
 whence the son of peace was at length ejected ; but 
 how? and whither went he? Bound and fettered 
 and scourged along the hideous road, now foul with 
 death ; his matron partner, and his blooming daugh- 
 ter, with raiment torn, and hair dishevelled, and 
 shoulders laid bare to the quickening thong, drag- 
 ging their bruised limbs after him, the son of peace 
 proceeded on his way, satisfied that as was the Lord, 
 so must His people be in this world ; and neither 
 daunted nor discouraged on his path of sorrow, 
 sanctified as was every step thereof by the footprint 
 of the great Forerunner. 
 
 They have reached the camp ; and in a Icrdly
 
 276 . 7O1S.'LUSION. 
 
 tent (>its the appointed vicegerent of him who murps 
 a throne in the nominal temple of God. A dense 
 company surround him, of bishops and priests, and 
 all the ecclesiastical orders of Rome, clad after the 
 pattern seen by John in the Apocalypse, in scarlet, 
 and gold, and gems of dazzling lustre, such as their 
 queen was decked in. An outer circle inclose this 
 mitred and cowled company, of fierce warriors, 
 whose burnished armor, Hashing back the licfht 
 
 o o 
 
 amid the wild and graceful confusion of silken scarfs 
 and waving plumage of every imaginable dye, add 
 grandeur to the terrors of the scene. Who else is 
 there ? The son of peace is there ; a most unwont- 
 ed guest in that gorgeous company ! The poor 
 peasant stands before the haughty prelate who 
 wields pontifical authority, defiled with dust and 
 blood, and pale with the anguish that cries out from 
 the overburdened heart, " Save me from this hour !" 
 yet calm in the inseparable adjunct, so dear to the 
 child of God, " Nevertheless not my will but thine 
 be done !" Close behind him, close as wanton 
 tyranny will permit them to press, stand the gentle 
 objects of his earthly love, endeared by the tie that 
 death cannot sever. He is questioned concerning 
 his hope : he declares it to be wholly centred in 
 Jesus who died upon the cross for sinners : he is 
 asked of his faith in the power of the so-called 
 church ; in the authority of her priests to absolve 
 from sin and to save a soul alive, or to bind that 
 soul in chains that Omnipotence, cannot break; h*
 
 CONCLUSION. 27? 
 
 Is a&ked of his confidence in tlie n.erits awd inter- 
 cessory efficiency of dead women and dead men ; 
 and, fia illy, he is required to submit himself to the 
 Roman Church, as of divine authority ; to bow down 
 and adore a consecrated cake, as the very Jesus, the 
 all-sufficient Saviour whom he hast just confessed. 
 
 To each and all of these queries and demands, he 
 returns a calm, firm negative ; striving at the same 
 time to set forth the grounds of his scriptural dis- 
 sent ; but experience had taught the persecutors the 
 impoi : cy of suffering the truth to be heard ; and 
 with fL-rce clamor they condemn him to the burning 
 flames. A shorter interrogation suffices with the 
 women ; it is enough that his faith is theirs, his 
 hope, his joyous readiness to suffer ; and the son of 
 peace passes out, to ascend the burning pile already 
 prepared by eager hands, well accustomed to the 
 task, and perfectly aware that a victim once seized 
 was already condemned, even though proof should 
 fail that he had ever borne the brand of heresy. 
 The flames ascend ; the priests in awful mock- 
 ery of God chant their jubilate round the scene of 
 death ; and warriors clash their shields and wave their 
 banners in joyous accompaniment, while the curling 
 smoke ever and anon dividing, affords them a glimpse 
 of what is within. The son of peace is there : the 
 Prince, of Peace is there also, invisible to man, but, 
 oh, how sensibly present to His suffering, yet rejoic- 
 ing servants, now in the act of putting off the 
 scorched tabernacles of their mortal bodies, and to 
 24
 
 278 CONCLUSION. 
 
 join the noble army of martyrs, resting in the abodes 
 of everlasting peace. 
 
 Persecution and affliction are not the necessary 
 portion either of a church or of an individual be- 
 liever. The Lord assigns the lot that He sees best 
 suited to the circumstances in which he has placed 
 them. Even under heathen rule, and in the midst 
 of many adversaries, there was a period of which it 
 could be recorded, " Then had the churches rest 
 throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria;" 
 and instead of any declension attending this peace- 
 ful state, we read, that they " were edified ; asd 
 walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort, 
 of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." In like man- 
 ner, it sometimes pleases God to add outward pros- 
 perity, and domestic happiness, unalloyed by any 
 great drawback, to the spiritual blessings wherewith 
 he enriches his children ; until, perhaps, the doubting 
 soul makes a cross of the absence of crosses, asking, 
 " Can I be living godly in Christ Jesus, while I suffer 
 no persecution!" These are exceptions indeed to a 
 general rule, but they should excite no misgivings : it 
 often seems good to the Lord to try our faith, and 
 Immility, and love, by prosperity as well as by ad- 
 versity ; and perhaps it is the harder trial of the two. 
 
 A single believer in an ungodly, dissipated family ; 
 a pious man, obliged to abide among scoffers, as a 
 soldier in a regiment, or a sailor in a ship ; a little 
 flock of true Christians walking consistently with 
 their profesVon in a church where spiritual life is
 
 CONCLUSION. 279 
 
 otherwise extinct, and where the rulers are not fnith- 
 ful to their trust ; these must indeed look for per- 
 secution as .severe as the restraining power of Prot' 
 estant toleration will allow ; and where the religion 
 of the Bible is gradually giving way to a religion of 
 forms and ceremonies, vain traditions and unwar- 
 ranted assumptions, we may be assured that the 
 hour is not far off when such toleration shall cease 
 to exist, together with the root that bears it. In 
 the case of the afflicted Albigenses, the sure word 
 of prophecy had foretold their delivery into the 
 power of the Beast, and his successful war upon 
 them ; but it is probable that very few among them 
 possessed, and fewer still applied to themselves, 
 what had been revealed to the apostle John. It 
 was enough for them that God had shown them 
 the all-sufficiency of the one great sacrifice offered 
 on the cross ; and the Holy Spirit strengthened 
 them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ 
 had made them free, resisting unto death the entan- 
 glements of that yoke of bondage which would have 
 enslaved them to a system utterly opposed to the 
 truth of the Gospel a mystery of iniquity, the dire- 
 ful workings of which they beheld on all sides ; not 
 only in the profligate lives of its ministers, and the 
 hardened sinfulness of its votaries, but in the deeda 
 of blood and savage cruelty perpetrated under its 
 direct sanction, as a rendering unto God of most 
 acceptable service. 
 
 The land was no\i again thrown out of cultiva
 
 280 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ticn ; for war lad once more burst upon its borders, 
 and it was well known that Blanche of Castille, the 
 q;ieen-mother of France, had promised to put a 
 finishing hand to the work of her predecessors. 
 The young Count Raymond was beforehand with 
 her; after the affair of Becede, which was all that 
 the last invasion had accomplished, he took the field 
 with a considerable army, met the enemy's forces, 
 obtained a decisive victory, and gave the most con- 
 clusive proof of the extirpation of what was called 
 heresy among his followers, by practising the most 
 barbarous cruelties on his prisoners, who were mu- 
 tilate 1 and tortured to death by the victors. A 
 seconi successful battle was followed by the same 
 atrocities, giving evidence that even the restraining 
 influence formerly exercised by the presence of true 
 Christians among the troops was withdrawn, and 
 that the spirit of revenge had taken place of that 
 noble devotion to a better cause which once charac- 
 terized the Toulousians. A thousand piles of burn- 
 ing faggots, heaped with martyred Albigenses, 
 would not have afforded to Rome such a triumph as 
 did these cruelties of a successful foe : in the former 
 case, she could but kill the body, and after that had 
 no more that she could do : in the latter, she saw 
 her own venom infused into the soul, and the vic- 
 tims were hers and the dragon's forever. 
 
 The signal punishment which followed these acts 
 en the part of men who could not plead ignorance 
 af beltei *.hin<rs. was a finishing blow to the wars
 
 COJTCLTJSK N. 29j 
 
 of many years. Here again we meet wilh the inde- 
 fatigable emissary of Satan, Fouquet, who encour- 
 aged Humbert de Beaujeu, the commander over 
 whose troops Raymond had achieved these deeply- 
 tarnished conquests, to advance upon Toulouse with 
 & powerful reinforcement of crusaders, brought to- 
 gether by the strenuous efforts of the bishops and 
 preaching-brotherhood. Guilty and terrified, the 
 Languedocian troops threw themselves into their 
 ancient city, and prepared to defend it as best they 
 might ; but here again Fouquet triumphed by 
 means as contrary to the commandment of God as 
 they were odiously barbarous towards man. He 
 caused the crusaders to assemble each morning, 
 close under the walls of Toulouse, the better to at- 
 tract the attention of thoso. within ; and then, in- 
 stead of assailing its fortific?.tions, to disperse ; each 
 troop under its own leader, and each daily by a 
 new route, across the plains through the valleys, 
 over the mountains, deliberately cutting down, up- 
 rooting and utterly destroying the fruit-trees, and 
 every vegetable growth tln>t could give promise of 
 a future supply to the wre'ched proprietors and la- 
 borers of the soil. .Not ?. vestige did they leave of 
 aught that could yield harvest or vintage, or glean- 
 ing of any kind; wbih, so far as their ingenuity 
 could eft'eot it, the v^ry ground was rendered barren 
 and worthless Fr^ni their towers and walls the 
 people of TouVus^ looked forth upon this fearful 
 novelty in t l n ^j-fare to which they had been so 
 24*
 
 282 CONCLUSION. 
 
 long accustomed ; for a novelty it was, because thfl 
 united energies of a large army were devoted exclu- 
 sively to the work, so long as there lay within 
 leagues around a spot wearing the aspect of present 
 or future fertility. The citizens dared not ven- 
 ture forth, well knowing their inability to cope with 
 the enemy, and the danger of leaving their gates 
 with a diminished guard. The garrison, recently 
 returned from the battle-field, was paralyzed with 
 conscious guilt : they had shown no mercy and could 
 but expect tenfold retribution from a foe to whom 
 for the first time they had given real cause of 
 offence. Three months thus passed, without a day'; 
 cessation from the work of ruin, sufficed. Winter 
 had arrived, and no harvest was housed, no vintage 
 gleaned, no hope, for years to come, of that supply 
 without which the wealthiest among them must 
 perish. God's saints were the salt that preserved 
 the mass so long ; they were gone, and nothing 
 remained but natural corruption, eating its way 
 through the abandoned body. 
 
 Raymond VII. made the best terms he could ; 
 and tby were sufficiently hard. Among them, he 
 obliged himself to raze their walls, and to fill up the 
 formidable ditches of Toulouse, rendering it incapa- 
 ble of ever presenting a defensive front to any as- 
 sailant ; while a French garrison, occupying the 
 splendid Narbonnese Castle, would keep strict 
 watch over the proceedings of the citizens. An- 
 other article bound h m to set a price on the head
 
 288 
 
 of evety sus])ected heretic, throughout his domin- 
 ions ; and a third to make war on his generous 
 faithful allies, the Count of Foix, and nil who yet 
 showed a disposition to preserve their independence. 
 But a more sure method of silencing forever the 
 voice of truth in those unhappy regions was adopted, 
 by the assembled prelates of the provinces, who 
 met in council at Toulouse for that purpose ; and 
 this was the introduction and- permanent settlement 
 of that master-piece of what is itself the master- 
 piece of Satan that most hideous child of a hide- 
 ous parent, the Inquisition, which had received the 
 fiat of its establishment, as a godly and useful meant) 
 of upholding the power of the papacy, at the fourth 
 council of Lateran, so infamously famous for its an- 
 tichristian decrees. If now a single sheep or lamb 
 of Christ's flock lurked among the blighted scenes 
 of former peace and prosperity, it was sure to be 
 discovered, brought forth, and immolated. 
 
 The treaty signed at Paris on the 12th of April, 
 1229, put a final close to the secular part of the 
 contest, which had been carried on for more than 
 twenty years, between the people and the princes 
 of Languedoc, on the one side, and the court of 
 Rome, aided by the armies of France, on the other. 
 That treaty has been justly termed, " the most ex- 
 traordinary that any sovereign had ever been re- 
 quired to sign. Each of its articles," says William 
 do Puy T/uvrens, "contained a concession which
 
 284 CONCLUSION. 
 
 might alone lave sufficed for the ransom of tnr 
 count of Toulouse, had he been made prisoner in a 
 universal rout of all his army. Raymond neverthe- 
 less, did not hesitate to give his consent to it." * 
 By that treaty, he surrendered to the king all his 
 possessions in France, and to the legate of Rome, 
 all that he held in the kingdom of Aries. After 
 this universal renunciation, the king, as if by favor, 
 granted him, as a fief,, for the remainder of his life, 
 a part only of what he had taken from him, namely, 
 a portion of the diocese of Toulouse, of Albigeois, 
 and of Quercy, with the entire dioceses of Agenois 
 and of Rouergue. These provinces, which the king 
 restored to him, were, moreover, to form the por- 
 tion of his daughter Jane, then nine years of age, 
 whom he named his sole heiress, and whom he en- 
 gaged to deliver immediately into the hands of 
 Blanche, that she might bring her up under her 
 own eyes, and afterwards marry her to one of her 
 sons at her discretion. He also promised to pay 
 20,000 marks of silver in four years ; further en- 
 gaging, as we observed just now, to raze the walls 
 and fill up the ditches of Toulouse ; to receive a 
 French garrison into his castle ; to dismiss all his 
 mercenaries, or hired troops ; to make war upon all 
 who had been his faithful allies : and to offer and 
 pay a reward of two marks for every one of his own 
 subjects who might be arrested as a heretic. 
 
 This entire subjugation of the prince was followed 
 * Guill. de Pcxlio Laurentii, c. xxxix. j>. 691
 
 CONCLUSION. 285 
 
 in Novemb3r of the same year, by the permanent 
 establishment of the Inquisition. In a council held 
 at Toulouse, composed of the archbishops of Nar- 
 bonne, of Bordeaux, and of Auch, with their suffra- 
 gans, it was provided that the bishops were to de- 
 pute into each province a priest, and two or three 
 laics, to seek after, (having first engaged themselves 
 by oath,) all the heretics and their abettors " Let 
 them visit carefully," says the first canon, " each 
 house in their parish, and the subterranean cham- 
 bers, which any suspicion shall have caused to be 
 remarked ; let them examine all the out-houses, the 
 retreats under the roofs, and all the secret places, 
 which we order them, besides, everywhere to de- 
 stroy: if they find there any heretics, or any of 
 their abettors or concealers, let them in the first 
 place provide that they may not escape ; then let 
 them, with all haste, denounce them to the arch- 
 bishop, the bishop, the lord of the place or his 
 bailiffs, that they may be punished according to their 
 deserts." 
 
 The providence of God has wonderfully ordered, 
 that we should learn, both the piety and constancy 
 of the persecuted saints, and the Satanic means em- 
 ployed for their extirpation, from Romish pens. A 
 work published by fathers Martine and Durand, of 
 the congregation of St. Maur, preserves to us the 
 instructions given to the Inquisitors, for the proper 
 discharge of their duty. These instructions com- 
 mence thus :
 
 286 
 
 " In this manner the inquisitors proceed in (he 
 provinces of Carcassonne and Toulouse. Fhst, the 
 accused or suspected of heresy is cited ; when he 
 appears, he is sworn upon the holy Gospels, that he 
 will fully say all that he knows for a truth, respect- 
 ing the crime of heresy or Vaudoisie, as well con- 
 cerning himself as others ; as well concerning the 
 living as the dead. If he conceals or denies any- 
 thing, he is put in prison, and kept there until he 
 shall have confessed ; but if he says the truth, (that 
 is, if he accuses either others or himself,) his confes- 
 sion is diligently written down by a notary public. 
 . . . When a sufficient number have confessed to 
 make a sermon (thus they then called, what we at 
 this day name, from a Portuguese word, auto daft,) 
 the inquisitors convoke, in a suitable place, some 
 juris-consults, minor-brothers, and preachers, and the 
 ordinaries, (the bishops,) without whose counsel, or 
 that of their vicars, no person ought to be condemned. 
 When the council is assembled, the inquisitors shall 
 submit to it a short extract from the confession of each 
 person, but suppressing his name. They shall say, 
 for example, A certain person, of such a diocese, has 
 done what follows, after which the counsellors reply, 
 Let the inquisitor impose upon him an arbitrary pen- 
 ance, or let this person be immured, or in fine, let him 
 be delivered to the secular arm. After which they 
 are all cited for the following Sunday. On this day, 
 the inquisitors, in the presence of the prelates, the 
 abbots, the bailift's, and all the people, cause those
 
 281 
 
 to be first called, who have confessed and persisted 
 in their confession ; for, if they retract, they are sent 
 back to prison, and their faults only are recited. 
 
 " They begin with those who are to have arbi- 
 trary penances : to them they give crosses, they im- 
 pose pilgrimages, greater or smaller, according to 
 their faults ; to those who have perjured themselves, 
 they give double crosses. All these having gone 
 out with their crosses, they recite the faults of those 
 who are to be immured, making them rise, one after 
 the other, and each remain standing whilst his con- 
 fession is read. When it is finished, the inquisitor 
 seats himself, and gives his sentence sitting, first in 
 Latin, then in French. 
 
 " Finally, they recite the faults of the relapsed, 
 and the sentence being pronounced, they are deliv- 
 ered. . . . Nevertheless, those who are delivered as 
 relapsed, are not to be burned the same day they 
 are delivered ; but, on the contrary, they ought to 
 be engaged to confess themselves, and receive the 
 eucharist, if they require it, and if they give signs 
 of true repentance, for thus wills the lord Pope." 
 
 Such was the external form observed. But the 
 same two Benedictine fathers have admitted us 
 somewhat farther into the interior of these pro- 
 ceedings. A later instruction, printed by them, is 
 as follows : 
 
 " Even he who is the most profoundly plunged in 
 heresy, may sometimes be brought back, by the fear 
 of death, or the hope that he shall be permitted to
 
 219 CONCLUSION. 
 
 live, if he confess sincerely the errors which he has 
 learned, and if he denounce any others whom he 
 may know to belong to this sect. If he refuses 
 to do it, let him be shut up in prison, and given 
 to understand, that there are witnesses against him, 
 and that if he be once convicted by witnesses, there 
 will be no mercy for him, but he will be delivered 
 to death. At the same time let his food be les- 
 sened, for such fear and suffering will contribute to 
 humble him. Let none of his accomplices be per- 
 mitted to approach him, lest they encourage him, or 
 teach him to answer with artifice, and not to betray 
 any one. Let no other approach him, unless it be 
 from time to time two adroit believers, who may 
 advise him cautiously, 'and as if they had* compas- 
 sion upon him, to deliver himself from death, to 
 confess where he has erred, and upon what points, 
 and who may promise him that if he do this he 
 shall escape being burned. For the fear of death, 
 and the love of life, sometimes soften a heart, which 
 cannot be affected in any other manner. Let them 
 speak to him also in an encouraging manner, saying. 
 ' Be not afraid to confess, if you have given credi 4 
 to these men when they said such and such things, 
 because you believed them virtuous. If you heard 
 them willingly, if you assisted them with your pro- 
 perty, if you confessed yourself to them, it was lie- 
 cause you loved all whom you believed to be good 
 people, and because you knew nothing 511 respecting 
 them. The same might happen to men much wiser
 
 CONCLtSION. 
 
 than you, who might also b<3 deceived by ihern. 
 he begins then to soften, and to grant that he lias, 
 in some place, heard these teachers speak concern' 
 ing the Gospels or the Epistles, you must then ask 
 Lira, cautiously, if these teachers believed such and 
 uch things, for example, if they denied the exist- 
 ence of purgatory, or the e-fficacy of prayers for the 
 dead, or if they pretended that a wicked priest, 
 bound by sin, cannot absolve others, or what they 
 say about the sacraments of the church ? After- 
 wards, you must ask them, cautiously, whether they 
 regard this doctrine as good and true, for he who 
 grants this, has thereby confessed his heresy. . . . 
 Whereas if you had asked him bluntly whether he 
 believed the same things, he would not have an- 
 swered, because he would have suspected that you 
 wished to take advantage of him and accuse him as 
 a heretic. . . . These are very subtle foxes, and you 
 can only take them by a crafty subtilty." 
 
 We will add here a last instruction given by the 
 inquisitor, the author of this work, to his brother, 
 drawn from his personal experience. " Note," saya 
 he, " that the inquisitor ought always to siqjpose a 
 fact, without any proof, and only inquire after the 
 nix umstances of the fact. For example, he should 
 bay, How many times hast thou confessed thyself to 
 the heretics ? or, in what chamber have the heretic 
 slept in thy house? or similar things. 
 
 " In like manner the inquisitor may, from time tc 
 time, consult a book, as if lie had the life of the bet' 
 25
 
 290 CONCLUSION. 
 
 etic written there, ar>d all the questions that he wn 
 to put to him. 
 
 " Likewise, when a heretic confesses himself tc 
 /iiiu, lie ought to impose upon him the duty of ac- 
 cusing his accomplices, otherwise he would not give 
 a sign of true penitence. 
 
 "Likewise, when a heretic either does not fully 
 confess his errors, or does not accuse his accom- 
 plices, you must say to him, in order to terrify him, 
 ' Very well, we see how it is. Think of thy soul, 
 and fully renounce heresy, for thou art about to die, 
 and nothing remains but to receive with true peni- 
 tence all that shall happen to thee.' And if he then 
 says : ' Since I must die, I had rather die in my 
 own faith than in that of the church,' then it is cer- 
 tain that his repentance was feigned, and he may be 
 delivered up to justice." 
 
 The general plan was now entirely formed. Sub- 
 sequent councils, treaties, and papal edicts, filled up 
 the outline, in subsequent years, so as to leave DD 
 possible way of escape for even the suspected. In 
 April, 1233, a bull of Gregory the IXth confided 
 the work of the Inquisition especially to the Domin- 
 icans, while in his letters the Pope exhorted Louis 
 IX. to unite his zeal with that of the monks, and tc 
 inflict upon the relapsed heretics, convicted by the 
 inquisitors, their merited punishments. He also 
 recommended the Dominican monks to all the p-e- 
 lates in the kingdom, and to the nobles and bar oni 
 of Aquitaine, praying them to aid these monks in
 
 291 
 
 the execution of their commission. The bishop of 
 Tournay, as legate of the holy see, named twc D*. 
 minicans at Toulouse, and two in each othe/ ally 
 of the province, to form the tribunal of the i lilli. 
 And Raymond, appearing inactive in the woik, was 
 summoned before the legate and the king at M.;lun, 
 where he subscribed new statutes, then demanded 
 of him, by which, (and they are now extant,) " he 
 engages to pursue and exterminate those who had 
 killed the persecutors of the heretics, and to reward 
 with a mark of silver, whoever should denounce, ar- 
 rest, or cause to be arrested, a heretic ; to cause 
 every house to be pulled down in which an asylum 
 had been offered to one of the proscribed, or even 
 where he might have found a burial : to confiscate 
 the goods of those who should have rendered them 
 any kind office ; to destroy every lonely cottage, every 
 grotto, every fastness, where they might find a re- 
 fuge : to take from the children of the heretics, and 
 confiscate, whatever property they might have inher- 
 ited from their parents ; to punish, by the confisca- 
 tion of all their goods, and that without prejudice 
 to corporal punishments, all those who, being called 
 upon by the inquisitors to assist in the arrest of a 
 heretic, should either refuse, or by design should 
 suffer the accused to escape." In these same stat- 
 utes, imposed upon Count Raymond, numerous ar- 
 ticles were added to the preceding, to leach these 
 who should endeavor, by quitting their hcnes, or 
 conveying their property by fictitious sales, or by
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 other means, to escape from the rapacity of the 
 officers. These articles agreed on at Melun were 
 afterwards published at Toulouse, on the 18th cf 
 February, ] 234. A council held at Beziers, in the 
 same year, ander the presidency of the legate, added 
 still more to thL oppression, by permitting any of 
 the faithful to arrest every suspected person, \n 
 any place whatsoever, upon an accusation of here- 
 sy, and By threatening with the heaviest penalties 
 those who should in any way obstruct these private 
 arrests, as soon as the word heresy was pronounced.* 
 Two years after, in 1235, another council was 
 held at Narbonne the chief object of which seems 
 to have been, to multiply the cases in which, by a 
 fiction of law, they might apply the punishment of 
 relapse or revolt. The forms of procedure pre- 
 scribed by this circular are perhaps more important 
 than even the definition of the crimes. "As to 
 those you are to arrest," say the prelates, " we think 
 proper to add, that no man can be exempted from 
 imprisonment, on account of his wife, however young 
 she may be ; no woman, on account of her husband : 
 nor both of them on account of their children, their 
 relations, or those to Avhom they are most neces- 
 sary. Let not any one be exempted from prison, 
 on account of weakness, or age, or any similar cause. 
 ... If you have not succeeded in arresting them, 
 hesitate not to proceed against the absent, as if they 
 were present; take particular care, in conformit? 
 * Labbe, v>l. xi. pp. 4-13, 452.
 
 293 
 
 with the discerning will of the apost:lic see, not to 
 publish by word or sign, the names of the witnesses ; 
 and if the culprit pretends that he has enemies, and 
 that they have conspired against him, ask the names 
 of those enemies, and the cause of that conspiracy, 
 f jr thus you will provide for the safety of the wit- 
 nesses, raid the conviction of the accused. On ac- 
 count of the enormity of this crime, you ouglii to 
 admit, in proof of it, the testimony of criminals, ;f 
 infamous persons, and of accomplices. He who 
 persists in denying a fault, of which he may be con- 
 victed by witnesses, or by any other proof, must be 
 considered, without hesitation, as an impenitent hsre- 
 tic."* 
 
 It was hard for human nature to bear all this 
 rigor. A letter from the consuls of Narbonne to 
 those of Nismes, details the particulars of a quarrel 
 which took place between the civic authorities and 
 the Inquisitors. The consuls allege, that these 
 ecclesiastics, despising all the rules of justice, thought 
 of nothing but how to get possession of the prop- 
 erty of the rich, even when they were exposed to 
 no suspicion of heresy. They add, that when the 
 inquisitors had plundered them, sometimes they dis- 
 missed them without trial, and sometimes they caused 
 them to perish in prison, without pronouncing any 
 sentence upon them. They then proceed to give 
 examples of the interrogatories of the inquisitors, to 
 which it was impossible to reply without being cea- 
 
 * Labbe. vol. xi. p. 488, 501. 
 2.1*
 
 OfU CONCMTS10U. 
 
 victed of heresy. The greater part of these quto* 
 tions are as improper to be repeated, as they were 
 incapable of being answered, being frivolous, cap- 
 tious, and indecent ; but they afterwards passed to 
 others of a somewhat different kind. " They de- 
 manded of these simple laics, if the host which tha 
 priest consecrated contains all the body of Jesil3 
 Christ ? If the laic answers that it contains the en- 
 tire body of Jesus Christ, the inquisitor directly re- 
 plies : You believe then that when four priests, who 
 are in one church, consecrate each of them a host, 
 as they ought to do, each of these hosts contains 
 the body of Jesus Christ ? If the laic replies thai 
 he believes so, You think then, replies the inquisitor, 
 that there are four Gods ? Then the affrighted laic 
 affirms the contrary/'* 
 
 Tyrannical, however, as was the conduct of the 
 Dominicans, their yoke could not be shaken off, nor 
 their main purpose defeated. " Heresy" was effect- 
 ually extirpated in those provinces, Yet was the 
 ancient maxim still shown to be true, that " the 
 blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." 
 Driven from their happy and peaceful abodes, the 
 " heretics" of Albi and Toulouse wandered far and 
 vide, and the history of Europe brings them to our 
 view, year by year, during a full century after, in 
 all parts of this quarter of the globe. No voice, 1:0 
 outward appearance announced the preaching of re- 
 form, or troubled the public tranquillity. Yet, thi 
 Hist, ile Nism -s, toin. i. liv. iii. p. 307.
 
 29'i 
 
 proscribed Albigenses, who, far from their country, 
 had found an asylum in the cottage of the peasant, 
 or the poor artisan, whose labors they shared in 
 profound obscurity, had taught their hosts to read 
 ihft Gospel in common, to pray in their native tongue 
 without the ministry of priests, to praise God, and 
 gratefully submit to the chastisements which his 
 hand inflicted, as the means of their sanctification. 
 In vain did the inquisition believe that it had com- 
 pelled human reasuii to submission, and established 
 an invariable rule of faith. In the midst of the 
 darkness which it had created, it saw, all at once, 
 some luminous points appear where it would least 
 have expected them. Its efforts to extinguish, 
 served only to scatter them, and no sooner had it 
 conquered, than it was compelled to renew the com- 
 bat. 
 
 " Gregory IX., who had deemed the very soil of 
 Languedoc polluted, by its having produced so 
 many sectaries, and that the count of Toulouse 
 could not be innocent, whilst he had so many her- 
 etics amongst his subjects, all at once discovered, 
 with alarm, that even at Rome he was surrounded 
 with heretics. To give an example to Christendom, 
 be caused a great number of them to be burned be- 
 fore 'the gates of Santa Maria Majora ; he after- 
 wards imprisoned, in the convents of la Cava, ind 
 of the Monte Cassino, those who were priests or 
 clerks, and who had been publicly degraded, with 
 those that had given signs of penitence. At tbe
 
 290 CONCLUSION. 
 
 tame time, he caused the Senators cf Rome to pro- 
 mulgate an edict, which determined the different 
 punishments to be assigned to the heretics, to thc.-e 
 who encouraged them, to those who should give 
 them an asylum, and to those who neglected to ac- 
 cuse them ; always dividing the confiscations be- 
 tween the spy who denounces, and the judge who 
 condemns, that the scaffolds might never be l; r t 
 without victims ; a combination which the Roruii 
 court has not renounced to this day. He sent the 
 senators' edict and his own bull to the archbishop 
 of Milan, to engage him to follow his example. He 
 afterwards profited by his recent reconciliation with 
 Frederic II., to announce to him, that Cathari, Pa- 
 terini, Poor of Lyons, and other heretics, formed in 
 the school of the Albigenses, had at the s;ime time 
 appeared in Lombardy and in the two Sicilies, and 
 to obtain from his friendship an edict which has 
 gained him the eulogium of the annalist of the 
 Church, and has been deposited in the pontifical ar- 
 chives. By this edict, the emperor commanded all 
 pcdestats and other judges, immediately to deliver 
 to the flames ever-y man who should be convicted of 
 heresy by the bishop of his Jiocese, and to pull out 
 the tongues of those to whom the bishop should 
 think it proper to show favor, that they might not 
 corrupt others, by attempting to justify themselves. 
 After having thus raged in Italy against the fugi- 
 tive Albigenses and their disciples, Gregory IX. did 
 Dot forget to pursue them in France. He \\ 'ote Lc
 
 CONCLUSION. 207 
 
 the archbishop of Bourges, and to the bishop of 
 Auxerre, to exhort them to show themselves worthy 
 of the sacred ordination they had received, Ly com- 
 mitting to the flames all the heretics that had bet* 
 discovered at la Charite upon the Loire." * 
 
 Germany was soon found to be similarly infested. 
 The city of Stettin was reported to be filled with 
 heresy ; and Gregory addressed bulls to the bishops 
 of Minden, of Lubeck, and of Rochhasburg, to incite 
 them to preach up a crusade against the heretics. 
 The mandate was obeyed, and the Duke of Brabant 
 and the Count of Holland took the command of a 
 new army of the cross. The Romish annalists tell 
 us, that in the year 1233, " an innumerable multitude 
 of heretics was burned alive, through all Germany; 
 while a still greater number apostatized."! From 
 our own chronicler, Knighton, we learn, that many 
 of the Aquitanian fugitives escaped into England, 
 and that some of them were burned. Thuanus says, 
 that others migrated into Calabria, and some to Bo- 
 hemia and Poland. A few, it is certain, found a 
 peaceful refuge among the Valdenses of Piedmont ; 
 for a Romish missionary who visited the valleys of 
 Piedmont in A. D. 1405, states that he found then* 
 two distinct communities: one, of the ancient Vau- 
 dois, the other, a body of Albigeois, who had dweli 
 there ever since they had been driven from thfti* 
 nomes, in the crusades of the thirteenth century, 
 
 * Sismondi's Albigensic Crusade, pp. 235 237 
 f Lab* ;, torn. xi. p. 477.
 
 298 CONCLUSION, 
 
 The history, then, of the extirpation o. this one* 
 flourishing church of Languedoc, presents, at one 
 view, the fulfilment of various promises and predic- 
 tions which we find in God's word. There is " a 
 threefold cord," which is "not easily broken." 
 
 1. We are warned by Daniel, that, during the 
 predicted reign of the Little Horn, that Antichris- 
 tian power should " wear out the saints of the Most 
 High;" which should be "given into his hand," 
 until the completion of " a time and times and half 
 a time." This is the " WAR WITH THE SAINTS," ia 
 which, as the prophet was forewarned, the Little 
 Horn should " prevail against them." The very 
 same remarkable expression is adopted by St. John, 
 whose ten-horned beast made " WAR WITH THE 
 SAINTS ; and overcame them ;" and whose Great 
 Harlot, seated on that beast, is seen " drunken with 
 the blood of the saints ; and with the blood of the 
 martyrs of Jesus." 
 
 2. But our Lord himself forewarns and instructs 
 his disciples, what they should do, under these cir- 
 cumstances. He plainly told his followers, " Theu 
 shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall 
 kill you : and ye shall be hated of all nations for my 
 name's sake. And then shall many be offended, 
 and shall betray one another, and shall hate one 
 another. And many false prophets shall riss, and 
 shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall 
 abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But ki
 
 CONCLUSION. 20V 
 
 that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be 
 saved." (Matt. xxiv. 9-13.) 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's 
 sake : but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. 
 Bat when they persecute you in this city, flee ye 
 into another : for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not 
 have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of 
 man be come." (Matt. x. 22, 23.) 
 
 And further : 
 
 "And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be 
 preached in all the world for a witness unto all na- 
 tions ; and then shall the end come." (Matt. xxiv. 
 14.) 
 
 3. The sure and supporting promise, howeve'r, on 
 which his persecuted people might rely, was given 
 to them at the very moment of his parting, when he 
 said, " Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, bap- 
 tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost : Teaching them to ob- 
 serve all things whatsoever I have commanded you : 
 
 and, LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAY, EVEN UNTO THE END 
 
 OF THE WORLD." (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20.) 
 
 Thus, we observe, first, that for a certain allotted 
 period, the Man of Sin was to have dominion, was 
 to overcome the saints, and to become drunken with 
 their blood : secondly, that the Lord's people were 
 to be thus driven from one country to another, as- 
 sured of this, that amidst all their wanderings, they 
 would no; have completed their task of preaching
 
 300 CONCLUSION. 
 
 the Gospel to every nation under heaven, until the 
 very moment of their Lord's approach. But, thirdly, 
 ander all these sufferings and discouragements, 
 " troubled on every side, but not distressed : per- 
 plexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not for- 
 saken, cast down, but not destroyed," they had the 
 last, the sure promise of Christ himself for their 
 perpetual consolation : "Lo, I am with you ALWAY, 
 even unto the end of the world." 
 
 Such is the infallible portraiture of the condition 
 and the destiny of the people of God during the 
 reign of Antichrist ; and most fully have we seen 
 it fulfilled in the history which we have now con- 
 cluded. 
 
 Yet, strange to say, there are still some to be 
 found not among Tractarians or secret Romanists 
 merely, but among sincere Christians, like the late 
 Dr. Arnold, and some of the Dissenters, who reso- 
 lutely shut their eyes to the leading facts of this 
 case. They admit the existence of much bigotry 
 and intolerance, but this, they add, you may find 
 in the days of Cyprian and Jerome, as well as in 
 the times of Hiidebrand or Innocent III. They ac- 
 knowledge, too, the existence of many corruptions, 
 in the middle ages; but the seminal principle of all 
 these corruptions, they add, was perceptible even in 
 apostolic days. Thus, by firmly closing their eyes 
 against the plainest facts of history, they arrive at 
 the conclusion, that there -was no APOSTASY, and no 
 
 " WAR WITH THE SAINTS."
 
 CONCLUSION. 801 
 
 To render this view at all tenable, however, they 
 re forced to question the authenticity of the book 
 of Daniel, and to maintain that the Apocalypse 
 pictures forth either the events of the days of Nero, 
 or else the events of a period which has not yet even 
 commenced ! 
 
 The simple-minded and humble student of God's 
 word, however, will only be repelled and alarmed 
 by these violent propositions. He finds Holy Scrip, 
 ture and the records of even Roman historians unit- 
 ing in the fullest harmony to establish the fact, that 
 from the commencement of the mystic 1260 years, 
 to its close, there was existing in Europe a Great 
 Spiritual Tyranny ; and that by this Tyranny " the 
 Saints," whether Paulicians, Cathari, Vaudois, Al- 
 bigeois, or Lollards, were uniformly " warred 
 against ;" and until the close of the allotted period 
 were " worn out," " prevailed against," and
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 OF the Albigenses, their purity of doctiine and of 
 life, and the last traces that remain of them, in the 
 page of history, the following records ought per- 
 haps to be added : 
 
 "A contemporary historian, after describing the 
 missionary efforts of Dominic and the Bishop of 
 Ozma against them, says, that these apostles of 
 Popery demanded of the inhabitants of those parts, 
 why they did not drive the heretics out of their 
 country ? To which the answer was, ' We cannot ! 
 we have been brought up with them ; we have rela- 
 tions among them, and we see the goodness of their 
 lives.' " And thus," adds the historian, " does the 
 spirit of falsehood, only by the appearance of a pure 
 and spotless life, lead away these inconsiderate peo- 
 ple from the truth." 
 
 " In fine, the real state of the case, (allowing for 
 their own bias,) is truly described by two French 
 historians. Paradin, the annalist of Burgundy, 
 says : 
 
 " ' I have seen certain histories, in which both the 
 Albigenses and their princes stand excused of the 
 allegations so frequently brought against them. The 
 and errors ef Manicheisin, with which they
 
 APPENDIX. 303 
 
 were said to be stained, were purely fictitious. 
 Through sheer malice, such enormities were imputed 
 to them by their enemies. They did none of the 
 things whereof they were falsely accused ; though they 
 did indeed, somewhat too freely, reprehend the vices 
 and corruptions of the prelates.' 
 
 " And Bernard Girard thus confirms this view : 
 " ' The Counts of Toulouse and Cominges and 
 Bigorree, and even the King of Arragon himself,' 
 says he, 'espoused the party of the Albigenses. 
 These sectaries were tainted with bad opinions ; but 
 that circumstance did not so much stir up against 
 them the hatred of the Pope and of the great prin- 
 ces, as the freedom of speech with which they cen- 
 sured the vices and the dissolute manners of the said 
 princes and ecclesiastics ; for they were accustomed 
 to reprehend the life and actions of the Pope him- 
 self. This was the chief matter which stirred up 
 an universal hatred against them ; and it moreover 
 was the cause that many nefarious opinions, from 
 which they altogether dissented, were fictitiously as- 
 cribed to them. The clergy of France, in short, 
 falsely accused the Albigensos of all sorts of here- 
 sies, merely because they exposed and reprehended 
 their vices.'* 
 
 " ' The fugitives of Languedoc scattered them- 
 selves over several of the kingdoms of Europe. 
 Knighton says, that many of them escaped into Eng- 
 land, and that some were burnt alive. Thuanus tell 
 The Church in the Middle Ages, pp. 337, 338.
 
 804 APPENDIX. 
 
 us, that others migrated into Calabria, and some lo 
 Bohemia and Poland. That one portion, at least, 
 reached a quiet retreat in the valleys of Piedmont, 
 seems clear from the fact, that in A. D. 1405, Vin- 
 cent Ferrier, a Papist, visited these valleys for the 
 purpose of proselyting their inhabitants to Roman- 
 ism ; when he found there two distinct, though 
 friendly communities ; one being that of the ancient 
 Vaudois ; the other a body of Albigeois, who had 
 resided there ever since the extirpation of the 
 churches of Christ from Languedoc. Another cen- 
 tury or two probably commingled these two com- 
 munities together, but the fact, as existing in A.D. 
 1405, seems to be placed beyond a doubt.' "* 
 
 Of their great persecutor, perhaps the following 
 notice may possess some interest : A recent travel- 
 ler in the South of France thus writes : 
 
 " The feeble and vacillating Count Raymond of 
 Toulouse, the unhappy tool and slave of a spiritual 
 power, whose temporal tyranny he at times resisted, 
 and at times submitted to, died as he had lived, the 
 victim of superstition ; while he revolted from tern 
 poral oppression, he trembled at spiritual maledic- 
 tion. 
 
 " Unable to delight in the persecutions of bis un- 
 offending, pious subjects, he was accused by the in 
 quisitorial monks, and even accused himself, of sym- 
 pathizing with heretics : a devout belie.ver in the 
 * The Church in the Middle Ages, pp. 351, 352.
 
 APPENDIX. 308 
 
 Church that stripped him of his lands and dignity, 
 he endured all the horrors that a state of excom- 
 munication can inflict, and remained on his knees 
 outside the churches which he was not allowed to 
 pollute by entering. 
 
 "As is usually the case with such minds, suffering 
 and misfortune only tended to deepen superstitious 
 feelings and terrors. He had assumed the order 
 cf St. John, and when speechless, before his death, 
 he was covered with the mantle of his order, and 
 seen to kiss it with the utmost devotion. Yet as 
 an early patron of the Provencal heresy, the perse, 
 cution of the Church continued even after his death ; 
 his body was not allowed to be buried ; nor could 
 his son even obtain leave to do so. His skull was 
 long preserved at Toulouse, and there I looked with 
 interest on his bust. 
 
 " The grave of Simon de Montfort, (if such it is,) 
 in the Cathedral of old Carcassonne, is nameless : 
 it is only a slab of red marble, without name or date. 
 I was looking at it with some of these thoughts in 
 my mind, when a young Frenchman approached, 
 and asked if I coulo. tell him where was the tomb 
 of a great saint, who had fought for the Christian! 
 several ages ago. 
 
 " I felt it strange to point down to the red slab, 
 and answer ' There ' Simon de Montfort, a great 
 saint, and fighting for the Christians !"* 
 
 Christian Lndy's Magazine, vol. ixii. pp. 30, 31.
 
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