Medieval Catholics were opposed to any version of Christianity that did not fit into the religious belief system of Rome. Therefore, when the teachings of the Cathars spread widely in the south of France, and especially in the foothills of the Pyrenees, the Roman Church decided to destroy the Cathar sect and used Catholic fanaticism as a weapon in the fight against heresy.
Cathedral of Saints Nazarius and Celsius in Carcassonne. These were local saints who were venerated everywhere in the cities of Languedoc.
A LITTLE HISTORY …
To begin with, they sent in preachers, hoping to "admonish" the apostates with the word of God. But apart from ridicule, the Roman papacy received nothing. Having failed, the church began to put pressure on the lords of that region, Raymond (Raymond) V (1134-1194) and his successor Raymond (Raymund) VI (1156-1222), the counts of Toulouse, hoping through them to put an end to the Gentiles.
Raymond VI was in no hurry to take action and assured the Pope of devotion to church dogma. Having experienced public humiliation, he was forced to swear allegiance to the Catholic Church, although he could not and did not want to go against his own people.
Not waiting for the complete obedience of Raymond VI, Pope Innocent III (about 1161 - 1216) announced a crusade against the Cathars.
Cathedral of Saints Nazarius and Celsius in Beziers. The documents for the first time mention the construction of the temple in the VIII century. The current church was erected in the 13th century on the site of a former building destroyed in 1209 during the crusade against the Albigensians.
ARMY OF THE CRUSADERS
King Philip II of France (1165–1223), together with his heir, did not want to be at the head of the campaign against their own vassals, but they allowed the Duke of Burgundy and Count de Nevers to become the head of the crusader army. The Burgundian aristocracy was distracted by the threat of rebellion and intrigues of the English king John (John) Landless (1166-1216), who had the support of the German Kaiser Otto IV of Braunschweig (1175 / 76-1218), looming over Poitou. Only 500 Burgundian knights responded to the call. The army assembled in Lyons for the papal blessing was a very heterogeneous mass, consisting of people of the most varied backgrounds.
The army consisted of another 4,000 sergeants in chain mail armor, or hip-length gobers, who followed the cavalry on foot. 400 crossbowmen were to conduct "fire" battle. Their crossbows had the ability to shoot a thick and short arrow at a distance of up to 300 m. They were cocked with a hook suspended from the belt, to which they hooked the bowstring, inserting a leg into the loop or "stirrup" in the front of the box and pushing it, that is, the leg, down. It was a very effective weapon against mail and shields. The Pope twice in the past prohibited the use of crossbows against Christians, primarily because he allowed any peasant to kill his master. And in this conflict, both sides had crossbows.
RELIABLE REARS …
In the active army of Catholics, there was also a reserve: ribo - infantry, not trained in army discipline, a total of up to 5,000 people, armed with all kinds of, as a rule, very cheap weapons.
The presence of ribos in a military campaign was necessary for any medieval army. They were needed for household needs, since in addition to warriors who needed all kinds of services - from cooking to repairing shoes - there were also animals that needed grazing and supervision: they had to be watered, fed, and courted. All of this required a lot of people to be able to do the job. In return, simple food and shelter were offered. There were also those who simply could not live without a marching life, and therefore were ready to follow the army even to the ends of the world.
View of the city of Béziers and its cathedral.
The "fellow travelers of the army" armed themselves as best they could, following, first of all, the capabilities of the wallet, as well as the skills they acquired. Daggers and knives were the basis of the "gentleman's set". The usual clubs, swords and agricultural implements also took place.
Let's not forget about 1000 squires in the army. Although, in truth, many knights had two assistants, and, as a rule, it did not come to the services of squires.
View of the Orb River and the bridges across it from the roof of the cathedral. Of course, today everything has changed a lot here.
In addition, on the march, the army was followed by a "siege train" consisting of disassembled catapults, stone throwers, "cats" (a symbiosis of a house and a cart with a reinforced roof and a ram suspended inside) and even siege towers. Naturally, the service personnel of such a train included both mechanics and carpenters. Siege equipment was floated down the Rhone on barges, and then set off in carts drawn by mighty oxen along the old Roman roads.
The administration of religious needs, as well as the supervision of the spiritual purity of the medieval army, was carried out by several hundred clerics, led by Arnaud Amori, Abbot of Cito of the Cistercian monastery. The army consisted of 13,000 people, the same number of horses (fighting, racing and draft), oxen and domestic animals, which were intended for preparing food from them. The army in the campaign stretched out in a column about 10 km long.
Another view from the roof of the cathedral to the side of the river, where once stood the tents of the crusader army.
The disgraced Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, followed in the wagon train, followed by vigilant surveillance by the churchmen. No data was found about what the count was doing during the hostilities, but later he left the army of the crusade and stood at the head of the army in defense of the Cathars.
CRUSADERS AT THE WALLS OF THE CITY
It took the hikers a full month to reach Béziers, the first major Cathar city, 250 kilometers to the west. In Montpellier (a city located 80 km short of Béziers), the viscount of the city, Raymond Roger Trancavel, wished to join the ranks of the crusaders in order to divert suspicion from himself. Abbot Amory, however, categorically refused the services of the Viscount. Unable to burn out heresy in his own lot, he should have felt the consequences of connivance, and therefore should not have expected any mercy. Upon returning to the city, Raymond-Roger informed the citizens of the need to seriously prepare for defense, and he himself, together with the Jews, went to Carcassonne in the hope of gathering an army and helping Beziers.
The townspeople, meanwhile, began to hastily stock up on provisions, water, and also check and put in order the defensive capacities: to clean and deepen the fortress ditches.
It is worth talking a little about Beziers here. The medieval city of Beziers was then located on the northern bank of the Orb River, not far from the beautiful, warm Mediterranean Sea. At one time, the Romans built a road here, calling it Via Domizia, which went through Spain, the south of France and Italy. A bridge about 300 m long was built across the river, along which the inhabitants of Beziers could cross from the right bank of the river to the left and back all year round, despite the extensive winter floods of the river.
The medieval city, reliably protected by powerful walls, stood on a rocky ledge, towering 20 m above the bridge. This allowed the defenders of the city to keep in sight and in the area shot through with crossbows the near part of the bridge with a force of 400-500 people. Below, under the walls, Faubourg stuck to the rock - a settlement with many houses and small houses that did not fit inside the city perimeter. A direct assault across the bridge was impractical, since it promised great losses to the enemy, and the width of the river did not allow the use of catapults and stone throwers, since stone shells simply did not reach the Beziers walls.
TROOPS PLAN
The Crusader army approached the city walls on July 21. Bishop Beziers, who followed with the crusaders, persuaded the inhabitants to surrender the city.
In addition, the clergyman asked to hand over to the army about 200 heretics, named by him by name, offering in return his saved lives. The demand was rejected indignantly. The townspeople hoped for their defenders, for the strength and invulnerability of the city walls. And also on the fact that, having not achieved success, in a month, the enemy's army will scatter home on its own.
The Crusaders, meanwhile, crossed the river and camped on a sandy area southwest of the city. The distance from the city walls was sufficient in order to see the enemy in time and prevent a surprise attack. The simpler ribo shelters were located closer to the bridge.
When the darkness began to dissipate and dawn broke, a figure of a young man armed with a knife loomed on the bridge over the river.
Here it is - this very bridge on which everything happened!
The purpose of his appearance on the bridge was incomprehensible: either bravado, or a provocation, or he was simply drunk. Such courage did not bode well. A small detachment, assembled by alarm, hastily drove out of the gates of the city, and, overtaking the young man, killed him.
It seemed that here it is, fortune! Fate itself gave the crusaders a chance to open battle. A fight ensued between ribo and a detachment of city defenders. The defenders were pushed back through Faubourg to the gate. The crusaders rushed into battle, using the opportunity to try their luck and try to enter the city with the least losses. And the unfortunate townspeople were in a hurry to recapture the gates from the invaders. The battle moved to narrow city streets. The cries of the wounded and the crying of children were heard everywhere. Men with weapons in their hands tried to fight off the attackers, fighting for their loved ones. However, the forces were unequal. Within a few hours, Beziers was ravaged, and many residents of the city found their death on the streets, and even in churches.
"THE ROAD TO HELL IS LAYED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS"
The population of Beziers consisted mainly of Catholics, but there were also Cathars among the inhabitants. They lived, nevertheless, all amicably, peacefully, as befits respectable neighbors. Arno Amori, the abbot of the Cistercian monastery there, was the one to whom the Crusaders turned with their questions. One of them sounded like this: "How can we distinguish Catholics from Cathars?"
The answer sounded echoes of both Bible covenants, and he himself became the property of history: "Kill everyone in a row, God in heaven will recognize his own."
And God's work began … The entire population was destroyed, including those Catholics who hoped to find salvation at the altars of Catholic churches. By noon, the labors in the name of the Lord were over, the city was depopulated … It cannot be said that one abbot Sito was responsible for everything with his thoughtlessly thrown phrase. On March 10, 1208, Pope Innocent III, holding a council with the Abbot Amory and 12 cardinals, decreed "to destroy and exterminate the Cathars … from Montpellier to Bordeaux." In the next letter to the Pope, the abbot, with a feeling of "deep satisfaction" from an excellently done work, said: "Neither years, nor position, nor gender became their salvation." The exact number of victims of that massacre is still unknown. The numbers vary dozens of times: from 7,000 to 60,000 people, including, as they say, the elderly and babies.
Ribot, who took the city, and then massacred the inhabitants, plundered the peaceful city of Béziers, taking such an amount of booty that they had never dreamed of even in a dream. However, such impudent looting infuriated the crusader knights. Feeling that they were bypassed in the carve-up of goods, they decided to teach a lesson to the "hollowed-out" by taking the loot by force.
Ribot, not wanting to part with the booty, set the city on fire in revenge. The fire was the apotheosis of this bloody bacchanalia.
EPILOGUE
After Béziers, the crusade through the cities and villages continued. The soldiers of Christ captured more and more cities and castles, massacred heretics wherever they could. Thousands of them were burned. Frightened by the massacre in Beziers and, not wishing themselves the same fate, the townspeople without resistance opened the gates of their cities. Rumors of presumptuous crusaders eventually reached the king of Aragon, who was forced to intervene and oppose the campaign in every possible way. Military actions were conducted, but not as actively as before. They either faded or flared up, each time with varying degrees of success. March 15, 1244 became a landmark day. Then the castle of Montsegur surrendered, after which about 200 proud and convinced Cathars were burned at the stake.
But heretics were burned! Great Chronicle of France, circa 1415 British Library.
For another 35 years, the Inquisition waged a struggle against the remnants of heresy, but it did not end them. In 1300 there were still more than a dozen Cathar priests, or "perfect" priests, operating in the Languedoc, the rest were forced to flee to Italy.
The French crown gradually took over most of the lands "liberated" from heresy. And although the Cathars were finally done away with, the Dominicans - a Catholic brotherhood officially recognized by the papacy - became followers of the ideals of the Cathars. Of course, not all, but those related to personal modesty and asceticism.
THE FORCES OF THE WARRIORS
CRUSADERS (approximately)
Knights: 500
Mounted Sergeants: 1000
Foot Sergeants: 4000
Crossbowmen: 400
Ribot: 5000
Total: 10900
QATARS (approximately)
City Guard: 3500
Unarmed civilian population: 30,000
Total: 33500
