Fourth Crusade
In 1198, Pope Innocent III charged Guy, along with Absalom, abbot of Saint-Victor of Paris, with imposing a tax of a fortieth on ecclesiastical revenues to support the upcoming Fourth Crusade. It was in connection with preparations for this crusade that Guy first worked with Fulk of Neuilly. Guy was one of four Cistercian abbots who joined the crusade "by command of the supreme pontiff, by the entreaties of the marquis and the counts of Flanders and Blois", a decision confirmed by the Cistercian general chapter at Cîteaux in 1201. [7] Guy strongly opposed the decision of the leaders of the crusade—Marquis Boniface of Montferrat, Count Baldwin IX of Flanders and Count Louis of Blois—to attack Zadar and Constantinople.
Guy had connections to Simon IV de Montfort, whose lands bordered those of Vaux-de-Cernay. He spoke on behalf of Simon's contingent when he asserted that they would never participate in an attack on Zadar, which belonged to Hungary. During a meeting of the crusade leadership, he responded to the Doge Enrico Dandolo's demand for an attack by publicly denouncing and forbidding it in the name of the pope. He probably read out to the army Innocent III's letter threatening excommunication on those who participated in any attack on a Christian city. After the siege of Zadar, in April 1203 Guy left the army in the following of Simon de Montfort. He traveled through Hungary and took ship in Italy to complete his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. [11] There is a letter from Stephen of Tournai to the abbot of Cîteaux, Arnaud Amaury, that asks that Guy not be sent back to the Holy Land on account of the physical and mental strain of his experience.
After his return to Vaux-de-Cernay, Guy strengthened his connections to those crusaders who had opposed the siege of Zadar. Four lords who had left the army over the issue made donations to Vaux-de-Cernay between 1206 and 1210. All four also took part in the Albigensian Crusade.
Albigensian Crusade
In the summer of 1206, Guy was one of twelve Cistercian abbots delegated by the general chapter at the request of the pope and the abbot of Cîteaux to root out the Cathar heresy in southern France by preaching. He was still preaching in the spring of 1207. In a papal bull dated 28 March 1208, Innocent III designated Guy as master of preachers in charge of the evangelization efforts. In November 1209, Innocent and Arnaud Amaury both requested Guy's assistance in Carcassonne in the aftermath of the siege of August 1209.
Guy stepped down as abbot in 1210 because of his increasing involvement with the Albigensian Crusade. In that year, after the siege of Minerve, he attempted to preach "words of peace and admonishments for salvation" to the Cathars in their houses. The heretics reportedly rebuffed him with the words, "We don't want your faith. We renounce the Roman Church. You are working in vain. Neither life nor death will call us back from the belief we hold." Guy moved on to preach to a group of women, without success. This is the last recorded instance of Guy preaching to Cathars, but there is no implication in the Hystoria Albigensis that he had any role in the burning of about 140 of them at Minerve.
In the years following the siege of Carcassonne, Guy went on regular trips north to preach the crusade (until 1215), frequently exhorted crusaders before battle and even served a spell as vice legate under Arnaud Amaury. In 1212, he took part as a preacher and on "other duties" in both the siege of Renne and the siege of Moissac. At the latter he worked closely with the more militarily-minded Archdeacon William of Paris. In 1212, he was consecrated bishop of Carcassonne.
Guy helped construct a bridge in preparation for the siege of Casseneuil in 1214. That same year, during the siege of Carcassonne, Guy led the clergy in singing the Veni Creator Spiritus during the fighting. He also oversaw the demolition of the castle of Montfort after it had been abandoned.
Guy was probably forced to leave Carcassonne when the city was evacuated by the crusaders in January 1223. He died on 21 March 1223, according to the necrology of the cathedral of Carcassonne.
Catharism was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. Followers were described as Cathars and referred to themselves as Good Christians, and are now mainly remembered for a prolonged period of religious persecution by the Catholic Church, which did not recognize their unorthodox Christianity. Catharism arrived in Western Europe in the Languedoc region of France in the 11th century. The adherents were sometimes referred to as Albigensians, after the city Albi in southern France where the movement first took hold. The belief may have originated in the Byzantine Empire. Catharism was initially taught by ascetic leaders who set few guidelines and so some Catharist practices and beliefs varied by region and over time. The Catholic Church denounced its practices, including the consolamentum ritual by which Cathar individuals were baptised and raised to the status of "Perfect".
The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, in southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crown and promptly took on a political aspect, resulting in not only a significant reduction in the number of practising Cathars, but also a realignment of the County of Toulouse in Languedoc, bringing it into the sphere of the French crown, and diminishing both Languedoc's distinct regional culture and the influence of the counts of Barcelona.
Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, known as Simon IVde Montfort and as Simon de Montfort the Elder, was a French nobleman and famed knight of the early 13th century. He is widely regarded as one of the great military commanders of the Middle Ages. He took part in the Fourth Crusade and was one of the prominent figures of the Albigensian Crusade. Montfort is mostly noted for his campaigns in the latter, notably for his triumph at Muret. He died at the siege of Toulouse in 1218. He was lord of Montfort-l'Amaury from 1188 to his death and Earl of Leicester in England from 1204. He was also Viscount of Albi, Béziers and Carcassonne from 1213, as well as Count of Toulouse from 1215.
Raymond VI was Count of Toulouse and Marquis of Provence from 1194 to 1222. He was also Count of Melgueil from 1173 to 1190.
Raymond Roger Trencavel was a member of the noble Trencavel family. He was viscount of Béziers and Albi, and viscount of Carcassonne and the Razès.
Folquet de Marselha, alternatively Folquet de Marseille, Foulques de Toulouse, Fulk of Toulouse came from a Genoese merchant family who lived in Marseille. He is known as a trobadour, and then as a fiercely anti-Cathar bishop of Toulouse.
Roger Bernard II, called the Great, was the seventh count of Foix from 1223 until his death. He was the son and successor of the count Raymond-Roger and his wife Philippa of Montcada.
The Song of the Albigensian Crusade is an Old Occitan epic poem narrating events of the Albigensian Crusade from March 1208 to June 1219. Modelled on the Old French chanson de geste, it was composed in two distinct parts: William of Tudela wrote the first towards 1213, and an anonymous continuator finished the account. However, recent studies have proposed the troubadour Gui de Cavalhon as the author of the second part. It is one of three major contemporary narratives of the Albigensian Crusade, the Historia Albigensis of Pierre des Vaux-de-Cernay and the Chronica of William of Puylaurens being the others.
Cronica is the short title of a history of Catharism and the Albigensian Crusade by the 13th century Toulousain author Guillaume de Puylaurens.
Arnaud Almalric was a Cistercian abbot who played a prominent role in the Albigensian Crusade. Prior to the massacre of Béziers, it was reported that Amalric, when asked how to distinguish Cathars from Catholics, responded, "Kill them all! God will know his own."
Raymond II Trencavel was the last ruler of the branch of the Trencavel viscounts of Béziers. His entire life was occupied by efforts to reverse the downfall the Trencavel had experienced during the Albigensian Crusade, but he ultimately failed.
Peter of Vaux de Cernay was a Cistercian monk of Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey, in what is now Yvelines, northern France, and a chronicler of the Albigensian Crusade. His Historia Albigensis is one of the primary sources for the events of that crusade.
Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey was a Cistercian monastery in northern France (Ile-de-France), situated in Cernay-la-Ville, in the Diocese of Versailles, Yvelines.
The Cité de Carcassonne is a medieval citadel located in the French city of Carcassonne, in the Aude department, Occitanie region. It is situated on a hill on the right bank of the River Aude, in the southeast part of the city proper. The citadel was restored at the end of the 19th century and in 1997 it was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites because of its exceptional testimony to the architecture and planning of a medieval fortress town.
Guilhabert de Castres was a prominent Cathar theologian. Born in Castres, he became a Cathar Perfect and, between 1223 and 1226, Bishop of Toulouse in the Cathar Church. In the theological debates in the early 13th century between the Cathars and the Papal representatives, he presented the Cathar arguments, including at the Debate at Montreal in 1206 and at the last Debate at Pamiers where he encountered Saint Dominic in 1207, prior to the Albigensian Crusades.
The Massacre at Béziers was the slaughter of the inhabitants during the sack of Béziers, an event that took place on 22 July 1209, and was the first major military action of the Albigensian Crusade.
William was Count of Jülich from 1207 to 1219. He was a nephew of the previous Count, William II. He married Mathilde, daughter of Waleran III, Duke of Limburg. He died in 1219 during the Fifth Crusade in Egypt, and was succeeded by his son William IV.
The Siege of Minerve was a military engagement which took place in June and July 1210 during the Albigensian Crusade in the town of Minerve in southern France. It was undertaken by the Catholic Crusaders against the Cathars in southern France, who were regarded as a heretical sect. The Crusaders, led by French nobleman Simon de Montfort, besieged and captured the town. The Crusaders allowed the soldiers defending the town, Catholics, and any Cathars who had not yet reached the status of perfect to go free. Three Cathar perfects who repented were pardoned, but 140 others who refused to do so were burnt at the stake.
Martin was the abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Pairis in Alsace, then part of the German kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire. Martin played a supporting role on the Fourth Crusade. He was a major source for the Historia Constantinopolitana, a history of the Fourth Crusade written by the monk Gunther of Pairis. Gunther's Historia serves as both a eulogy on the life of Martin and also an account of the translation of relics Martin brought to Pairis from the crusade. Gunther describes Martin as pleasant-looking, affable, eloquent, humble and wise.
Peter was an Italian Cistercian monk and prelate. He was the abbot of Rivalta from 1180 until 1185, abbot of Lucedio from 1185 until 1205, abbot of La Ferté from 1205 until 1206, bishop of Ivrea from 1206 until 1208 and patriarch of Antioch from 1209 until his death. He is known as Peter of Magnano, Peter of Lucedio or Peter of Ivrea.
