The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade

A Sourcebook

Catherine Léglu, Rebecca Rist, Claire Taylor, Catherine Léglu, Rebecca Rist, Claire Taylor

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781317755654
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia del mundo

The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade brings together a rich and diverse range of medieval sources to examine key aspects of the growth of heresy and dissent in southern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and the Church's response to that threat through the subsequent authorisation of the Albigensian crusade.

Aimed at students and scholars alike, the documents it discusses – papal letters, troubadour songs, contemporary chronicles in Latin and the vernacular, and inquisitorial documents – reflect a deeper perception of medieval heresy and the social, political and religious implications of crusading than has hitherto been possible. The reader is introduced to themes which are crucial to our understanding of the medieval world: ideologies of crusading and holy war, the complex nature of Catharism, the Church's implementation of diverse strategies to counter heresy, the growth of papal inquisition, southern French counter-strategies of resistance and rebellion, and the uses of Latin and the vernacular to express regional and cultural identity.

This timely and highly original collection not only brings together previously unexplored and in some cases unedited material, but provides a nuanced and multi-layered view of the religious, social and political dimensions of one of the most infamous conflicts of the High Middle Ages. This book is a valuable resource for all students, teachers and researchers of medieval history and the crusades.

Section 1 PAPAL LETTERS

DOI: 10.4324/9781315798141-2

INTRODUCTION

DOI: 10.4324/9781315798141-3

This first section of the sourcebook examines a small selection of the large number of letters that were issued by the papal curia during the Albigensian Crusade. The sheer number during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and the diversity of their subject matter make them one of the most important types of sources of information for the historian of the Central Middle Ages. They are crucial primary sources for the Albigensian Crusade because they give plenteous, detailed evidence not only about its progress, but also about the ideas of those who authorised and organised it.

The Popes who Endorsed the Albigensian Crusade

Innocent III, born Lothar of Segni in 1160/1, became pope at only 37 years of age and enjoyed a long pontificate of 18 years (1198 –1216). He was a man of many talents, well-versed in both theology and canon law, the author of sermons and books of mystical theology, enthusiastic for pastoral reform, interested in the workings of the papal chancery and responsible for authorising crusades both to the Near East and in Europe, including the Albigensian Crusade. In 1208, anger at the death of his legate, Peter of Castelnau, reportedly at the hands of Raymond VI of Toulouse, encouraged him to authorise this crusade in the south of France, but as early as 1204 and 1205 he had already urged Philip Augustus, king of France to involve himself in combating heresy and in 1207 had promised a plenary indulgence to those who took part in a military campaign.

Throughout his pontificate Innocent implemented a whole series of initiatives to tackle heresy: issuing a number of important bulls such as Vergentis in senium (1199) against heretics; deposing southern French bishops whom he regarded as heretical or too influenced by heretics; ordering bishops in good standing to hold investigations into heresy in the ecclesiastical courts; persuading potentially heretical groups such as the ‘Humiliati’ to be reconciled with Mother Church; encouraging the Cistercians and eventually the mendicant orders to preach and teach against heresy. Yet he was impatient for quick results. Not only did he want to uphold the unity of the Church and encourage secular authorities to intervene on its behalf, but he also wished to destroy those heretics whose pernicious influence was corrupting southern French society. He came to believe that, as well as continuing to encourage preaching and teaching, these goals could be achieved much quicker by military means. This belief was only strengthened by the death of his legate, Peter of Castelnau. By the last years of his pontificate, he was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the Albigensian Crusade, wishing instead to concentrate European military forces on the Fifth Crusade to the Near East. Yet the precedent he set in calling for a crusade against heretics would profoundly influence the crusading policies of his successors.

Like Innocent III, Honorius III (1216 – 27) came from an old Roman family. Before becoming pope he had worked his way up through the papal curia, holding a number of important posts. His cursus honorum was traditional and conservative: he was a diplomat, chamberlain and auditor, interested in taxation and the workings of papal government. Yet he was no mere pen-pusher. During his 11-year pontificate he found time to compile a book of sermons that he had first delivered to the clergy and people of Rome as a cardinal, as well as assembling the Compilatio quinta, an important canon law collection. One of his first acts on becoming pope was to reinvigorate the Albigensian Crusade in the south of France and to call for the diversion of taxes originally intended for the Fifth Crusade, while at the same time cautiously maintaining the language and rhetoric of his predecessor who had continuously emphasised the importance of crusades to the Near East.

Honorius’ letters to the south of France do not have the same rhetorical power or linguistic ability of Innocent III and they are principally concerned with practical matters, in particular taxation. Yet his contribution to the cause of the Albigensian Crusade was not negligible, particularly since he was instrumental in persuading King Louis VIII of France to take part in crusading – an important milestone, because in the long term the French Crown became the principal beneficiary from the crusade. This suited the papacy that in general preferred to cooperate with centralised secular power rather than the local authority of southern French counts, whose marauding, faction fighting and private wars had brought chaos to the region and a weakening of ecclesiastical authority. Until 1229 the southern lands were only notionally under the authority of the king of France and it was only with the Peace of Paris that the Crown gained long-term control.

Honorius III’s successor, Gregory IX (1227– 41), had a distinguished career before becoming pope, having studied law at Paris and Bologna, held a number of important positions in and around Rome, and acted as papal legate in Germany during Innocent III’s dispute with Markward of Anweiler and the struggle of Otto of Brunswick and Philip of Swabia for the imperial throne. Honorius had also given him a legatine commission and entrusted him with preaching the Fifth Crusade in Italy. Gregory was deeply interested in canon law and one of the most important acts of his pontificate was the commissioning of the authoritative and highly influential collection of decretals known as the Liber extra decretalium. Throughout his pontificate he maintained a close relationship with the mendicant orders, both Franciscans and Dominicans, and was enthusiastic about establishing inquisitorial procedures to tackle heresy. As pope he became increasingly active in the power struggle between papacy and German Empire and eventually called for a crusade against the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II.

Like Honorius, Gregory was greatly influenced by the crusade policies of Innocent III. From the very beginning of his pontificate he reissued the grant of the indulgence for crusading against heretics and was careful to employ his predecessors’ language in order to emphasise continuity with their policies. Yet, like Innocent, Gregory came to realise that crusading was not necessarily the most effective weapon against heresy and that in the long term a papal inquisition, headed by the friars, was a much better way of dealing with heretics in the south of France. In 1229, two years into his pontificate, a political settlement was reached between crusaders and the southern French at the Peace of Paris: there was no longer the political will to ensure adequate support for the continuation of the crusade. The inquisition became the principal method which the Church employed to tackle heresy in the south of France. Nevertheless, in response to local pressures, Gregory would go on to authorise a number of crusades against heretics in other parts of Europe, alongside the establishment of inquisitorial procedures.

The Composition of Papal Letters

Although the papacy was at the height of its political power in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, we know surprisingly little about the workings of the papal chancery at this period. What we do know is that popes authorised the dispatch of different types of letters from the papal curia. These letters can be divided into two main groups, the most numerous being the ‘common letters’, which were issued in response to petitioners, and the other, much smaller group, being the ‘curial letters’, which concerned matters to which the pope and his administration attached particular importance and which were composed at the pope’s own request. The majority of papal letters were carefully thought out responses to secular and religious authorities who petitioned the curia from a wide variety of cultures and traditions, rather than the product of papal initiatives. They must be understood in the context of the great political, social and economic changes that were taking place in the Central Middle Ages, with an appreciation of the characters and concerns of individual pontiffs, and with an understanding of the theological and doctrinal precepts which underlay their pronouncements. In the case of the Albigensian Crusade, popes were often far removed both physically and emotionally from the specific problems on which they were called to pronounce and correspondingly far more competent at expounding these theological precepts than at dealing with practicalities.

By the thirteenth century, ‘common letters’ were framed in accordance with the stilus curiae Romanae, a style of rhythmical prose that the papal chancery had evolved in the twelfth century which both formalised and standardised correspondence. The composition of these letters, which were issued in response to petitioners, was a complex business and there were probably usually at least two major stages in the process. The first was the redrafting at the curia of the original letter from the petitioner as a formal petition which was then presented to the pope. The second was the papal letter in response which was drafted on the basis of this petition and which might then be read out to the pontiff himself, or if he was not present, to his officials. It was the notaries, senior officials of the curia and confidential secretaries of the chancery, specially trained and skilled in drawing up acts, in applying the stylistic rules of the stilus curiae Romanae and in composing letters and in collecting forms, who were responsible for these different drafts.

Following this work by the notaries, scribes then engrossed or copied out the letters, often receiving a fee from the petitioner for doing so. Selected from among the scribes were the correctores whose job was to oversee the correction of engrossments (final copies of the letters) to examine the language employed, to check for scribal errors, and if necessary to return the document to the original scribe for further work. Once the letter was finished, the bullatores would then seal the document and ensure that the proper tax was exacted, which would pay for the cost of its production. The vice-chancellor, who increasingly in the thirteenth century seems to have presided over the composition of letters at the papal chancery, might, if he so wished, completely revise the content of the letter either when the petition was first drafted for presentation to the pope, or later in the process when a fair copy of the papal letter had been composed. These letters were therefore the result of careful planning, execution and literary skill on the part of a great number of professional officials at the curia.

The employment of such notaries, scribes, correctores and bullatores in constructing papal letters, the working conditions under which they were composed and the political circumstances for which they were written are all important considerations when assessing the letters as primary sources for the Albigensian Crusade. To what degree and at what point in their creation were popes personally involved in the production of their correspondence? Did the pope actually compose the texts of their letters, or at least parts of them and, if so, then in what proportion? What exactly was the contribution of the vice-chancellor, notaries and scribes in composing important letters? Were some letters drafted under a pope’s personal supervision or were notaries left a free hand to write using appropriate language and expressions? Did the pope accept petitions presented to the curia as they stood or did he model these petitions in accordance with his own ideas and polices? To what extent did the original petition become part of the final papal letter? How often were letters read out to the pope himself before being despatched? How long did it take a letter to arrive in the south of France after it had been sent from Rome? And, perhaps even more significantly, since timing was often so crucial during complex political negotiations, when did the pope and curial officials think that it would or had arrived?

These are questions that it is almost impossible for historians to determine with absolute certainty. Nevertheless, it seems likely that the pope was present at least at some point during the composition of general letters addressed to the whole Christian faithful, even if he could not be personally involved in the production of all the letters that were despatched from the curia to individual rulers or clergy. It also appears likely that the pope dictated some of his correspondence and that in many cases he inspired the essential content of a letter, if not every word. No doubt popes also took advice about content from their cardinals, since letters were often the result of decisions made by consultation with these men in consistory (the formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals). So despite the input of notaries and scribes, it is certainly possible to discern the pope’s own ‘voice’ in many letters, as becomes apparent in the very different styles of the correspondence of Innocent III, Honorius III, Gregory IX and Innocent IV which we have selected for this volume. Although it is extremely difficult for the historian to reconstruct exactly how notaries were employed at the curia, precisely how letters were composed and the contribution of a particular pope to the writing process, nevertheless the pope’s own views, interests and ambitions can be clearly discernible.

As can be seen from the selection of letters chosen, different popes favoured different scriptural passages and used different biblical images to express their ideas. The notaries involved in the production of papal letters may also have inserted their own favourite scriptural passages and metaphors, but could not have done so without papal consent. Undoubtedly some letters are more informative about the polices of individual popes than others, particularly those less formulaic examples which not merely repeated stock phrases and sentiments, but contained new and original material. Letters concerned with the Albigensian Crusade differ greatly in style. Some are extremely formulaic, drawing heavily on a well-established genre of ecclesiastical writing and expressing their message in very conventional terms. Others are highly rhetorical, employing metaphors, similes and biblical citations to great effect to express the popes’ own belief that the crusade was a moral obligation of the papacy in the Church’s continuing fight against heresy.

Yet papal letters also display great continuity. This is not surprising – the papacy was an age-old institution and popes were conservative creatures, who, in keeping with their belief that the papacy was the continuation of apostolic tradition, deliberately sought to maintain that institution and to show continuity with their predecessors. Hence, for example, popes used similar metaphors to describe heresy in conventional terms, as a disease. Nevertheless, we can see from their letters the subtle differences in the way these were employed. Innocent III elaborated on standard metaphors, using them much more creatively than his successor, Honorius III. So although letters are highly formulaic, we can glean a great deal from them not only about the particular political and religious issues of a pontificate, but also about the characters of the popes themselves. As well as the successors of St Peter, popes were individuals with their own aims and agendas and their correspondence will often allow the historian to build up a much more complex picture of events and personalities than we get from chronicles, annals or biographies alone.

The Editions of Papal Letters used in this Sourcebook

Often papal letters have not been re-edited since the editions of papal correspondence produced by historians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The major source for Innocent III’s Register, which contains a vast amount of his ‘official’ correspondence, remains the Patrologia Latina. This great work was compiled by Abbé Migne in the nineteenth century and drew on the earlier works of editors such as Baluze, La Porte du Theil and Bosquet. Fortunately, as mentioned earlier, there is an excellent ongoing project by Hageneder, Strnad, Haidacher and others to completely re-edit the Register of Innocent III, although since this is still in progress, we as yet have only the correspondence of some of the years of his pontificate in their entirety. For the letters of popes subsequent to Innocent III, this volume relies on editions such as the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century series Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome, 2nd Series (Paris: Ecoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome, 1890 –1955). Yet many of the letters in this work are only calendared, rather than produced in full, and for this reason sometimes other sources have been used, for example, the nineteenth-century three-volume Epistolae selectae saeculi XIII e regestis pontificum Romanorum, edited by Carl Rodenberg, part of the massive Monumenta Germaniae Historica series edited by Georg Heinrich Pertz (Berlin: Deutsches Institut für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 1883 – 94), or, for example, the five-volume Honorii III romani pont...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• A Note on The Editors And Translators
• A Note on The Translations
• Primary Sources
• Map of the High-Medieval Languedoc
• Historical Introduction
• Section 1 Papal Letters
• Section 2 Troubadour Poetry
• Section 3 Inquisitors’ Registers
• Section 4 Chronicles and Narratives
• Further Reading
• Index of Persons
• General Index