Garonne, and even the Dordogne, nearly all the towns and strong castles,
Beziers, Carcassonne, Castelnaudary, Lavaur, Gaillac, Moissae, Minerve,
Termes, Toulouse, &c., were taken, lost, retaken, given over to pillage,
sack, and massacre, and burnt by the crusaders with all the cruelty of
fanatics and all the greed of conquerors. We do not care to dwell here
in detail upon this tragical and monotonous history; we will simply
recall some few of its characteristics. Doubt has been thrown upon the
answer attributed to Arnauld-Amaury, Abbot of Citeaux, when he was asked,
in 1209, by the conquerors of Beziers, how, at the assault of the city,
they should distinguish the heretics from the faithful: "Slay them all;
God will be sure to know His own." The doubt is more charitable than
reasonable; for it is a contemporary, himself a monk of Citeaux, who
reports, without any comment, this hateful speech. Simon de Montfort,
the hero of the crusade, employed similar language. One day two
heretics, taken at Castres, were brought before him; one of them was
unshakable in his belief, the other expressed a readiness to turn
convert: "Burn them both," said the count; "if this fellow mean what he
says, the fire will serve for expiation of his sins, and, if he lie, he
will suffer the penalty for his imposture." At the siege of the castle
of Lavaur, in 1211, Amaury, Lord of Montr6al, and eighty knights, had
been made prisoners: and "the noble Count Simon," says Peter of Vaulx-
Cernay, decided to hang them all on one gibbet; but when Amaury, the most
distinguished amongst them, had been hanged, the gallows-poles, which,
from too great haste, had not been firmly fixed in the ground, having
come down, the count, perceiving how great was the delay, ordered the
rest to be slain. The pilgrims therefore fell upon them right eagerly
and slew them on the spot. Further, the count caused stones to be heaped
upon the lady of the castle, Amaury's sister, a very wicked heretic, who
had been cast into a well. Finally our crusaders, with extreme alacrity,
burned heretics without number."