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Who's Who In The Cathar War:   Pope Innocent III (born 1160, Pope 1198 - 1216)

Innocent III, was born Lotario de' Conti, son of Count Trasimund of Segni and nephew of Pope Clement III.  Innocent was a keen supporter of Crusades, including the disastrous Fourth Crusade. 

Mass desertions from the Roman Church to the Cathars in the Languedoc (and the consequent loss of prestige and revenue) had already suggested to him the idea of a Crusade against his fellow Christians. Arnaud Amaury, Abbot of Cîteaux had been conducting a preaching campaign that had proved an even greater failure than the one run by Dominic Guzman (St-Dominic).

The luxurious lifestyle of Arnaud and his Cistercian monks excited mockery rather than envy in the Languedoc. Arnaud, personally humiliated, was now out for blood. The murder of a papal legate - a Cistercian monk - provided the ideal excuse for action. At Arnaud's prompting, Innocent III ordered a crusade against the people of the Languedoc. 

Their sovereign, Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, appealed for an impartial investigation. Innocent sent a lawyer called Milo, ostensibly to to carry out a fair assessment, but with secret instructions to take orders from Arnaud - Raymond's mortal enemy. Arnaud was therefore able to slake his thirst for blood and was soon leading the papal crusade. He personally adopted the role of its first military commander. His crusader troops - the dregs of France - enjoyed the same privileges as those who fought the Moslems.   Killing Cathars, like killing Moslems, assured the killer the highest place in Heaven.

 

Peter of Les-Vaux-de-Cernay in his contemporary Historia Albigensis was aware of the deceit, and does not seek to conceal it.

The pope had instructed Milo to consult the Abbot of Citeau in all matters relating to the business of the faith, and especially in anything concerning the Count of Toulouse, since the Abbot would be aware of the state of that business and have a thorough appreciation of the twists and turns of the Count Raymond's mind. Indeed, for this reason the Pope had expressly instructed Milo "The Abbot will do everything, you will be his instrument. The Count is suspicious of him; you will not be suspect" ... Milo consulted him on a number of specific points concerning the business of the faith. The Abbot gave his advice in writing and under seal, giving him detailed instructions on all points.

WA Sibly and MD Sibly, The History of the Albigensian Crusade (Boydell Press, 2002) §71 (p41), an English translation of Pierre des-Vaux-de-Cernay, Historia Albigensis. The "business of the faith" is Pierre's usual term for the Crusade.

 

Pope Innocent IIIInnocent claimed to have been given the whole world to rule over by God, and succeeded in extending the papacy's feudal power,acquiring as fiefs Portugal, Aragon, Hungary and England, and purporting to reassign important feudal properties of the Counts of Toulouse and Peter II, the King of Aragon.

Innocent III opened the Fourth Lateran Council on 15 November 1215.  This was the most important council of the Middle Ages.  Besides deciding on another crusade to the Holy Land, it issued seventy decrees, the first of which was a creed (Firmiter credimus) against the Cathars and Waldensians, in which the term "transubstantiation" received its first ecclesiastical sanction. 

Click on the following link to read a more detailed article about Pope Innocent IIINext.

Click on the following link for a translation of Canon Three of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215)Next:   

 

 

  

 

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Innocent III, from a 13th century fresco in the church of Subiaco in Italy.
   


Who's Who in the War

Innocent III