Carcassonne falls in the Albigensian Crusade

Nest after buzzing nest of heresy was smoked out by the Roman Catholic church in 12th- and 13th-century Europe. The Waldensians, Cathars and other groups had inherited the dualism of the gnostic sects of Christianity’s earliest days, who believed that the material world was evil, created and controlled by a great malignant power, not by the good God. The Church accused them of worshipping this power of evil, Satan, the enemy of God.

The Cathars of southern France, known as Albigensians after the city of Albi, a stronghold of heresy, were admired and protected by many of the local lords, most notably Count Raymond VI of Toulouse. Pope Innocent III called on him to wipe the heresy out and in 1208 sent a legate who was murdered on the day after an angry meeting with Count Raymond by one of the count’s servants. The count did not punish him and was generally believed to have been involved in the killing. The pope now proclaimed a crusade against the Albigensians and called on the warriors of France to avenge the legate’s death: ‘Forward, soldiers of Christ! Forward, volunteers of the army of God! Go forth with the Church’s cry of anguish ringing in your ears!’