Béziers 1209: Crusade and Dominican Origins
The sack of Béziers was an especially bloody event in the Albigensian Crusade of 1209.
ORIGINS
In the earliest times, the region around this city was settled by Phoenicians and Greeks, although ancient Egyptian artifacts have also been found in the area. (Robert Turcan, The cults of the Roman Empire, Blackwell, 1996, p 99) 
Known today as Languedoc, this place is well-suited for wine production. About 10 percent of the world wine supply is produced here.
Béziers was founded in the time of Cesar as Colonia (Julia) Baeterrae Septimanorum. (Ernest Desjardins, Géographie historique et administrative de la Gaule romaine, Volume 3, Hachette, 1885, p 70) The mild climate and fine wines led the Visigoths to settle here on their way from Rome to Spain. When the Jewish/Arab armies conquered Spain, they also took much of Languedoc, and stayed in the area between 720 and 752.
WEALTHY REGION
This area was "a prosperous and very influential region" located in the south of what is today France. (France Monthly, September 2005)
The sort of place where a Jew could make some money. So of course they came. The viscounts seem to have liked them, because like most kings, they were often in need of a loan.
OPENING THE DOOR
"The viscounts cherished the most kindly feelings for them, and the greater part of the Christian inhabitants, being Albigenses, lived on friendly terms with their Jewish fellow-citizens." (Richard Gottheil, Isaac Broydé, BÉZIERS, The Jewish Encyclopedia, 2002) Hie thee, gentle Jew. The Hebrew will turn Christian: he grows kind." (Antonio cited inWilliam Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene III)
VOICES OF WARNING
Of course, there were voices of warning: "The Bishop of Beziers introduced the custom of preaching inflammatory sermons every day from Palm Sunday to the second day of Easter, calling upon the Christians to avenge upon the Jews the crucifixion of Jesus; and the mob, under the influence of these addresses, 
that dwelt upon the passion of Jesus, used to arm itself with stones and attack and maltreat the Jews. This disturbance was repeated year after year, and the bishop bestowed his blessings upon the mob in each instance." (Heinrich Graetz, Max Raisin, Popular history of the Jews, Volume 3, Hebrew Publishing Company, 1919, pp 67, 68)
SILENCING THE WARNING VOICES
The Jews had a PR problem. And they solved it in their customary manner: "On May 2d, 1160, an agreement was concluded according to which every priest who stirred up the people against the Jews should be excommunicated.
SPIN DOCTORS PAY TO SUPPRESS NEGATIVE INFORMATION
The Jews in return pledged themselves to pay four pounds of silver every year on Palm Sunday." (Heinrich Graetz, Bella Löwy, Philipp Bloch, History of the Jews, Volume 3, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1902, p 394)
TOTAL CONTROL OF THE GOVERNMENT
Once the solid preaching stopped, the Jews quickly took over the key public offices. Naturally, this included the judiciary and the tax farming and treasury operations.
They had power, but couldn't get their hands on all the wealth of all the Christians. Yet.
AND POWERFUL POSITIONS IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
The baptized Jew Arnold Amalric (Jueri Lina, Under the Sign of the Scorpion, p 11), was moving up the career ladder in the Catholic church:
“Arnold Amalric, Abbott of Citeaux, abbot of Cistercian monastery of Poblet near Tarragona in Catalonia from 1196 until 1198. In 1198, he was installed as abbot of Grandselve, about 40km north of Toulouse, which was the wealthy mother house of Poblet and other Cistercian abbeys in the Midi, including Fontfroide. Remained there until election as Abbott of Citeaux and head of the Cistercian order in 1201. Appointed as senior legate by 
Innocent III in May 1204 to help Peter of Castelnau.” (Peter de les Vaux-de-Cernay, Historia Albigensis, The History of the Albigensian Crusade, The Boydell Press, 1998, p 16, footnote 4)
The Jews had their men in place, and now it was time to change ownership of the wealth of the city. Using the same method they did in Afghanistan, China, and Iraq.
War.
WHY NOT MAKE THAT A RELIGIOUS WAR?
It just so happened that many adherents of the Cathar religion were living openly in Languedoc. They disliked the pope, and didn't give him tithes or offerings. The pope wanted tithes; the Jews wanted the wealth of the city.
The pope could get soldiers -- all the soldiers he wanted -- if he called out a religious war, or crusade. And Jews know what to do once a war gets going.
But usually, you can't get a war going without giving the offenders some chance to compromise. And so the pope sent some missionaries to the Cathars. Just to give them a chance to pay up voluntarily.
The missionaries had lots of tithe money, so they could travel in style: servants, wines, fine furniture. The Cathars believed the way to salvation was through self-denial. So there was a clash of beliefs.
WANTED TO GET BACK TO THEIR PALACES
“The legates were weary of the task entrusted to them by the Pope and wished to abandon it, since they had achieved little or nothing in preaching to the heretics. Whenever they 
tried to preach to them, the heretics countered by pointing to the
A PACK OF HYPOCRITES
disgraceful behavior of the clergy and argued that if the legates wanted to reform the life style of the clergy, they would have to give up their preaching campaign.” (Peter de les Vaux-de-Cernay, Historia Albigensis, The History of the Albigensian Crusade, The Boydell Press, 1998, p 17)
“To calm the concerns of the legates the Bishop gave this salutary advice: leaving everything else aside, they should concentrate more vigorously on their preaching; and they should counter the criticism of the ill-disposed by displaying humility in all their conduct; by following the example of the Divine Master and by generally imitating the ways of the Apostles in all respects. However, the legates did not themselves wish to take responsibility for such an initiative; instead they promised that if some acceptable authority were to set an example, they would most willingly follow it. What more?
BISHOP OF OSMA WOULD PRETEND TO BE POOR
At once the Bishop, that dedicated servant of God, put himself forward to show the way; he sent his household and wagons back to Osma and, content with a single companion left Montpellier together with Peter of Castelnau and Ralph.” (Peter de les Vaux-de-Cernay, Historia Albigensis, The History of the Albigensian Crusade, The Boydell Press, 1998, pp 17-18)
Now that the missionaries were pretending to be poor and humble, maybe they would be more successful?
ENCOUNTERS TOP CATHAR THEOLOGIAN
The Bishop of Osma and the monks arrived at the castrum named Servian, where they encountered Theodoric, previously known as William, a Frenchman. Theodoric was described in Catholic circles as “a son of perdition, the fuel of eternal hell-fire”. He was a man of noble descent. His uncle, a knight, had been condemned for heresy at a council in Paris, and later moved to Narbonne. Theodoric was “much admired and esteemed by the heretics”. (Peter de les Vaux-de-Cernay, Historia Albigensis, The History of the Albigensian Crusade, The Boydell Press, 1998, p 18)SORE LOSERS
The pope’s men did what they could, and claimed victory in the debates. The Cathars in the area thought their
man Theodoric won, so even though the papal legates claimed they won the debates, they made no headway with the heretics.“It is also true that when the Albigensians spread and began to engulf larger and larger sections of the Southern French populace, Innocent dispatched special legates in the person of some Cistercians, but by their bearing and provocatively ostentatious way of living they only aggravated the situation.” (Walter Ullmann, A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages, Methuan, 1974, p 219)
Even though the Bishop of Osma dispensed with luxury for a little while, the Cathars weren’t fooled. In fact, they were annoyed by the arrogance of the papal missionaries. Peter of Castelnau was one of the most arrogant of the lot. Sure he was pretending to be humble, but the locals hated him.
PRETEXT FOR WAR
“At this time Peter of Castelnau was travelling out of Provence on his pacing mule. He reached the Rhone at St Gilles, and there he excommunicated the count of Toulouse for supporting the mercenaries who were ravaging the countryside. Thereupon an evil-hearted squire, hoping to win the count’s approval, stepped like a traitor behind the legate, drove his sharp sword into his spine and killed him. The man fled at once on his fast horse to his home town of Beaucaire, where he had kinsmen.Yet the legate raised his hands to heaven before he died and in the sight of all those present asked God to forgive this wicked man. This was while he was receiving communion at about cockcrow. Then he died, just as the day was dawning. His soul went to God
the Father and they buried him at St Gilles with many a Kyrie Eleison sung and many candles burning.” (William of Tudela, The Song of the Cathar Wars, A History of the Albigensian Crusade, translated by Janet Shirley, Ashgate, 2000, p 13).While William of Tudela says that the Peter was killed by some squire, this could easily have been an “inside job”. The missionary approach hadn’t worked. Not even when the Bishop of Osma and Peter rode around on mules and played poor.
But now one of the Pope’s servants had been killed in the line of duty. Sure Peter of Castelnau had prayed for forgiveness for his killer. There were people in Rome, though, who saw opportunity in this situation.
BROTHER ARNOLD HAS AN IDEA
“You can be sure the pope was not pleased when he heard of his legate’s death. He grasped his chin in anger and called on St James of Compostela and on St Peter of Rome who lies in the chapel there. He spoke his anathema and then dashed out the candle. Brother Arnold of Citeaux
was present, and so too were Mater Milo, that fine Latinist, and the twelve cardinals all in a circle. There it was they made the decision that led to so much sorrow, that left so many men dead with their guts spilled out and so many great ladies and pretty girls naked and cold, stripped of gown and cloak. From beyond Montpellier as far as Bordeaux, any that rebelled were to be utterly destroyed.” (William of Tudela, The Song of the Cathar Wars, A History of the Albigensian Crusade, translated by Janet Shirley, Ashgate, 2000, p 13)While Diego, the Bishop of Osma, had some ideas about “displaying humility in all their conduct; by following the example of the Divine Master and by generally imitating the ways of the Apostles in all respects” (per Peter de les Vaux-de-Cernay, Historia Albigensis, The History of the Albigensian Crusade, The Boydell Press, 1998, pp 17-18), Brother Arnold had other ideas:
“The Abbott of Citeaux, however, sat with his head bent. Then he rose and, standing by a marble column, said to the pope: ‘By St Martin, my lord, this talking is a waste of time! Come, have your letters written in good Latin, and then I can set off. Send them to France, to the Limousin, to Poitou, the Auvergne and Perigord; have the indulgence proclaimed here too and all over the world as far as Constantinople. Proclaim that any man who does not take the cross shall drink no wine, shall not eat off a cloth morning or night, shall wear neither linen nor hemp and when he dies shall lie unburied like a dog.’ He fell silent, and his advice seemed right to all who were there.” (William of Tudela, The Song of the Cathar Wars, A History of the Albigensian Crusade, translated by Janet Shirley, Ashgate, 2000, pp 13-14)The twelve cardinals liked the idea. Master Milo did. And so did the Pope. A full crusade.
AN ARMY IS RAISED
Proclaiming the indulgence was a big motivator. Soldiers could get their backlog of sins forgiven, and go to war with a license to sin. The sort of war “that left so many men dead with their guts spilled out and so many great ladies and pretty girls naked and cold, stripped of gown and cloak.” (per William of Tudela, The Song of the Cathar Wars, A History of the Albigensian Crusade, translated by Janet Shirley, Ashgate, 2000, p 13)
The army gathered, and set off into the field. "The crusading army was composed largely of contingents drawn widely from northern and central France." (Austin Evans, The Albigensian Crusade, A History of the Crusades, Volume II, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962, p 287)
THE CAMPAIGN STARTS
“This host condemned many heretics to be burned and had many fair women thrown in the flames, for they refused to recant however much they were begged to do so.” (William of Tudela, The Song of the Cathar Wars, A History of the Albigensian Crusade, translated by Janet Shirley, Ashgate, 2000, p 18)
And who was leading the army? Naturally, the papal legate Brother Arnold Amalric (Austin Evans, The Albigensian Crusade, A History of the Crusades, Volume II, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962, p 287)
THE SET UP (BETRAYAL)
“When the viscount of Béziers heard the report and knew that the army had passed Montpellier, he mounted his thousand-shilling horse and rode into Béziers one morning at dawn before it was fully light.
Old and young, great and small, the citizens heard of his arrival and hurried at once to meet him. He told them to defend themselves with all their strength and said that they would very soon receive good support.
‘I must leave for Caracassonne’, he said, ‘they have been waiting for me there too long.’ That said, he rode out of the town.
THE JEWS KNEW WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN
The Jews of Béziers followed him, and the other inhabitants were left in great distress and anxiety.” (William of Tudela, The Song of the Cathar Wars, A History of the Albigensian Crusade, translated by Janet Shirley, Ashgate, 2000, p 19)
But it was not the crusader army that captured Béziers. No, that job would be done by the ribaldi (scavengers and hangers-on) who attended the army. The "scavengers" "assaulted the walls on their own, broke into the city, opened its gates to the army, and wreaked terrible havoc on the inhabitants, orthodox and heretic alike." (Norman Zacour, The Children's Crusade, A History of the Crusades, Volume II, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962, p 327)
AND CLEANED UP
And after the scavengers got in, "There they took what houses they liked, and could have taken ten each if they had wanted to. They were in a frenzy, quite unafraid of death, killing everyone they could find and winning enormous wealth.” (William of Tudela, The Song of the Cathar Wars, A History of the Albigensian Crusade, translated by Janet Shirley, Ashgate, 2000, p 21)
And who were these scavengers?
"The Jews are the scavengers of the world". (Henry Ford cited in Steven Watts, The people's tycoon: Henry Ford and the American century, Random House, 2005, p 381)
Needless to say, these non-Christian scavengers who took the city had no respect for the cross or the church:
“That is why they massacred them at Béziers, killing them all. It was the worst they could do to them. And they killed everyone who fled into the church; no cross or altar or crucifix could save them. And these raving beggarly lads, they killed the clergy too, and the women and the children. I doubt if one person came out alive. God, if it be his will, receive their souls in paradise! So terrible a slaughter has not been known or consented to, I think, since the time of the Saracens.”(William of Tudela, The Song of the Cathar Wars, A History of the Albigensian Crusade, translated by Janet Shirley, Ashgate, 2000, p 21)
And where the abbott and his men went, “Panic spread and the town blazed from end to end”. (William of Tudela, The Song of the Cathar Wars, A History of the Albigensian Crusade, translated by Janet Shirley, Ashgate, 2000, p 21)
“On the day of St Mary Magdalene, 22 July 1209, Béziers fell to the Abbott of Citeaux and its inhabitants were massacred. The Jewish community, interestingly enough, had already left the city, accompanying its viscount Raymond Roger, who had gone to organise the defence of Caracassonne.” (William of Tudela, The Song of the Cathar Wars, A History of the Albigensian Crusade, translated by Janet Shirley, Ashgate, 2000, p 3)
