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numbers of them found their way, in the armies of the emperor Frederick, into Italy; and thence penetrated into Provençe, Languedoc and Gascony; their principal establishment was in the neighbourhood of Castres, which territory had been called the Albigensis since the fifth century: from this, they received their modern appellation. In 1022 several persons of distinction, who professed their principles, were discovered at Orleans; two canons of the cathedral church, who were considered to be their leaders, were burned; other executions followed; but the sect increased: they gained over to it the greater part of the inhabitants of Languedoc ; and Raymond, count of Toulouse, marquis of Provençe and duke of Narbonne, placed himself at their head.

The papal throne was filled at this time by Innocent the third; he sent missionaries into Languedoc to reclaim the heretics; but they met with little success, and some were massacred. The Albigenses then proceeded to greater excesses, and the pope published a crusade against them. The first successes of the crusaders forced the count of Toulouse into submission; the crusaders proceeded to Beziers, and put all the inhabitants to the sword; thence, they marched to Carcasson, and its inhabitants only avoided the same fate, by evacuating the town. After these exploits, the crusaders chose Simon, the seventh count of the illustrious house of Montfort-Amauri for their general. Under his command, they succeeded in most of their enterprizes. The count of Toulouse breaking his en

gagements, they declared war against him; in 1215, the city of Toulouse surrendered to them, and the pope, with the unanimous consent of all the chiefs of the crusading forces, conferred on Simon de Montfort their general, the administration of the county of Toulouse, the dutchy of Narbonne, andTM all the other states of count Raymond, to be held by feudal service of the king of France. Historians are agreed that the crusaders were guilty of the greatest excesses in the prosecution of this war. "In Languedoc," says Mr. Alban Butler*, "the "crusaders exercised cruelties and injustices, which

no principles could justify. Crimes and seditions "are not to be punished or revenged by other "crimes: avarice, ambition, or revenge, in many,

only covered themselves under a cloak of zeal for "religion."-The king of Arragon supported for a time the falling fortunes of the count of Toulouse; but the count de Montfort with an handful of men defeated the Arragonese army: the monarch, who commanded them in person, perished in the field. The count de Montfort then solicited from the pope, the investiture of the county of Toulouse and the other possessions, which, on the delinquency' of count Raymond, had been committed to his administration.

*Life of St. Dominic, note 6.

X. 3.

Council of Lateran.

THE request of the count de Montfort was referred by the pope to the council of Lateran, which by a letter circulated over every part of christendom, his holiness had convened to meet at the patriarchal church of St. John at the Lateran gate, in the city of Rome*. It was attended by 412 prelates, among whom were the patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, and by 71 primates or metropolitan prelates; by 800 abbots or priors; and by a considerable number of deputies from absent dignitaries. Frederick, the emperor elect of Germany, the emperor of Constantinople, the kings of England, France, Hungary, Jerusalem, Cyprus and Arragon, and several princes of the second order, attended it by their ambassadors. The pope presented to the council seventy canons, which he had caused to be framed. The first, is a profession of faith, containing several counterpositions to the errors of the Albigenses, and a denunciation of anathema, against all the heresies, which it proscribed. The third canon orders that, "heretics 'shall, after their condemnation, be delivered over "to the secular powers. The temporal lords are "to be admonished, and, if it should be found

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* Being the fourth council held in this church, it is usually called the fourth council of Lateran.-It is considered by roman-catholics to be the eighth œcumenical or general council.

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necessary, compelled, by censures, to take an oath, "in public, to exterminate heretics from their terri"tories. If the temporal lord, being thus required "and admonished by the church, shall refuse to 66 purge his land from heretical pravity, he shall be "excommunicated by the metropolitan and his suffragans; on his neglect during twelve months, "to give them satisfaction, this shall be certified "to the pope, and upon such information his holi"ness shall denounce the offender's vassals to be "absolved by law from their obligation of fealty, " and expose his land to be occupied by catholics'; "who, having exterminated the heretics from it, "shall possess them, without any contradiction, and preserve them in the purity of the faith,-saving "however, the right of the superior lord, provided "that he raise no obstacle to impede the proceed"ing. The same method of discipline is like"wise to be observed towards those, who have no superior lord."

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Such is this celebrated canon:-the advocates of the divine right of the pope to the deposing power, and the adversaries of the roman-catholic faith, are alike ready to bring it forward, as a solemn and explicit acknowledgment by a numerous and illustrious assembly, congregated from every part of christendom, and representing all its ecclesiastical and temporal powers, of the direct right of the pope to depose princes for heresy, and to punish, by confiscation, the person convicted of it.

Leaving to the transalpine divines the defence of the canon, if such be its real import,-catholics

in general either reject it altogether or construe it differently.

In the first place*, they assert that the canons were not decreed by the council, but merely propounded to it by pope Innocent for discussion, and that the members separated, without coming to any specific resolutions upon them. In support of this assertion, they cite several authorities: Matthew Paris in particular, who says, that "the canons were pro"posed by the pope, and appeared pleasing to some "and burthensome to others." They also appeal to the language itself of the canons, which sometimes refer to the council, as a council previously held. 2dly, They contend, that the particular canon, which we have mentioned, is an interpolation, as it has not been discovered in any ancient manuscript. 3dly, They observe, that the proceedings of the council had the concurrence of the civil powers, and so far as they related to temporal concerns, derived their authority and effect from the sanction, which these gave them, either by their embassadors, or by subsequent confirmation or acquiescence. This, they observe, is evident from the conduct of the emperor Frederick:-Pope Honorius, who succeeded

* See Dupin, de Antiquâ Ecclesiæ Disciplinâ, p. 571. Collier's Ecc. Hist. book ii. p. 424.

+ This is acknowledged by Collier, loc. cit.

This is Bossuet's interpretation of the proceedings of the council. See his "Defense de la Declaration du Clergé de

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France, lib. iv. c. 1, 2, 3, 4,—où on démontré par l'histoire "que l'eglise ne faisoit rien à l'égard des seigneurs et des "affaires temporelles que de conçert avec les princes et de "leur consentement."

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