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SIEGE OF BÉZIERS
Typographic StudyThis bilingual (Latin/English) typographic study commemorates the siege and subsequent slaughter of the French city of Béziers by the papal army of Innocent III on July 22, 1209, during the Albigensian Crusade.Innocent III became obsessed with the growing influence of a religious sect known as Catharism, which refused to recognize the authority of Rome and whose leaders included women as well as men. He declared the Cathars to be heretics that needed to convert or be eliminated. When the French king Philippe II refused to become involved, Innocent took matters into his own hands, declaring a “crusade” against the Cathars (also called Albigensians because of their concentration in the town of Albi) in the Languedoc region of southern France.To this end, Innocent sent a large armed force of mercenaries to Béziers with the intent of seizing the Cathars, and, conveniently, the surrounding land as well. The force was commanded by Simon de Montfort, with Arnaud Amaury, the Abbot of Cîteaux and founder of the Cistercian order of monks, serving as papal legate and “spiritual advisor”.The Catholic inhabitants of Béziers refused the Pope’s demand that they turn over their Cathar neighbours (approximately 200 out of a city of 20,000) to Montfort’s forces. The city was prepared for a long siege; however, the defenders allowed themselves to be baited by the taunts of a group of ruffians and camp followers from the forces of the besiegers, and opened the gates of the city to attack them. As they did so, the Crusaders forced their way through the gates and into the city, which was taken within an hour.It was at this point that Arnaud Amaury, when asked by one of his knights as to how they were to distinguish the Christians from the heretics, uttered his infamous response, Caedite eos! Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius!, which translates as: Kill them all! God will know his own!By the dawn of that same day, every church, home and shed in the town was ablaze; and nearly every one of its estimated 20,000 inhabitants put to the sword—7,000 of them in the Church of the Madeleine alone. In a letter to the Pope, Amaury wrote “the workings of divine vengeance have been wondrous”. -
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