status and his personal renown, superior as they were to his worldly
fortunes, authorized in his case any flight of ambition; and in the East
he had learned to believe that anything was allowed to him in the service
of the Christian faith. Innocent III., on receiving the tiara, set to
work at once upon the government of Christendom. Simon de Montfort, on
returning from Palestine, did not dream of the new crusade to which he
was soon to be summoned, and for which he was so well prepared.

Innocent III. at first employed against the heretics of Southern France
only spiritual and legitimate weapons. Before proscribing, he tried to
convert them; he sent to them a great number of missionaries, nearly all
taken from the order of Citeaux, and of proved zeal already; many amongst
them had successively the title and power of legates; and they went
preaching throughout the whole country, communicating with the princes
and laic lords, whom they requested to drive away the heretics from their
domains, and holding with the heretics themselves conferences which
frequently drew a numerous attendance. A knight "full of sagacity,"
according to a contemporary chronicler, "Pons d'Adhemar, of Rodelle, said
one day to Foulques, Bishop of Toulouse, one of the most zealous of the
pope's delegates, 'We could not have believed that Rome had so many
powerful arguments against these folk here.' 'See you not,' said the
bishop, 'how little force there is in their objections?' 'Certainly,'
answered the knight. 'Why, then, do you not expel them from your lands?'
'We cannot,' answered Pons; 'we have been brought up with them; we have
amongst them folk near and dear to us, and we see them living honestly.'"
Some of the legates, wearied at the little effect of their preaching,
showed an inclination to give up their mission. Peter de Castelnau
himself, the most zealous of all, and destined before long to pay for his
zeal with his life, wrote to the pope to beg for permission to return to
his monastery. Two Spanish priests, Diego Azebes, Bishop of Osma, and