Today the French town of Beziers remembers the 800th anniversary of the first sack and massacre of the Albigensian Crusade.
Rome was alarmed by the advent in southern France of a mass religious movement, Catharism, with such scandalous doctrines as spirit-body dualism and not giving tons of money to Rome.
Naturally, God said to cut them to pieces.
Beziers was the first town invested by the invading crusader army, left to its fate as the Cathars mustered in Carcassone. Interestingly, this particular city did not so much present that familiar spectacle of Christians killing Christians who thought differently — unless the thought in question was about handing over their neighbors to a throng of land-grabbing nobles.
Part of the Catholic faith did itself honor this day: those Biterrois who refused to abandon to the glories of martyrdom the Cathars in their midst, who are thought to have numbered merely a few hundred. So when the walls fell, it was mostly orthodox Catholics killing orthodox Catholics.
Well, what’s a crusading army with other cities to sack supposed to do?
“Kill them all”
After the fortified city embarrassingly got itself captured within hours by camp followers, Caesar of Heisterbach recorded one of history’s more quotably infamous instances of prayerful deliberation:
When they discovered, from the admissions of some of them, that there were Catholics mingled with the heretics they said to the abbot “Sir, what shall we do, for we cannot distinguish between the faithful and the heretics.” The abbot, like the others, was afraid that many, in fear of death, would pretend to be Catholics, and after their departure, would return to their heresy, and is said to have replied “Kill them all for the Lord knoweth them that are His” (2 Tim. ii. 19) and so countless number in that town were slain.
Or, in glorious Latin:
Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.
And so they did.
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 children. I doubt if one person came out alive … such a slaughter has not been known or consented to, I think, since the time of the Saracens. (William of Tudela, cited in Cathar Castles)
Ten to twenty thousand are thought to have been slain this day — in what proportions Catholic and heretic, only God can say.
On this day..
- 1881: Albert and Charles Talbott, bad sons - 2020
- 1822: Thomas Thomasen Bisp, skull exhibit - 2019
- 1991: Andrew Lee Jones, the last electrocuted in Louisiana - 2018
- 1587: George Gaspar, an English heretic in the Inquisition - 2017
- 1916: Arthur Grove Earp, shellshocked - 2016
- 1799: Elizabeth Lavender, teenage Fairlight infanticide - 2015
- 1995: 43 armed robbers - 2014
- 1979: Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party coup - 2013
- 1789: Joseph-Francois Foulon, corrupt financier, lynched - 2012
- 1635: Domingos Fernandes Calabar, traitor? - 2011
- 1501: Antonio Rinaldeschi, bad gambler - 2010
- 1794: Three generations of Noailles women, but not the Marquise de Lafayette - 2008
- Themed Set: Thermidor - 2008
Just shows you what any and all religions will stoop to if their beliefs or Holy Books are called into question.
What is an orthodox catholic?
They’d be taking Mercury Vapor Lamps!
First, to clarify Michael’s comment, the most critical thing about the New Testament citation from 2 Tim. 2:19 is what does *not* appear there but does appear in what the relevant document reports as the rumored rather than firmly attested speech of Abbot Arnaud Almaric: the words _Caedite eos_, “Kill them.” It’s the rest of what he was reported by some to have said, “God will know his own,” that might be taken as an allusion to the cited passage in 2 Timothy affirming that “God knows his own”: in the Latin Vulgate, _cognovit Dominus qui sunt eius_. So, if the Abbot (or anyone else) on the scene had tried to justify the massacre with that scriptural text, we would have an extraordinarily perverse use of the Bible.
As a Wikipedia article on the Latin phrase Caedite eos… discusses, in fact the Abbot Arnaud Amaric’s own account of the massacre at Beziers in 1209 is very different: he gave no such advice or order, but the troops ran amok and slaughtered indiscriminately. So the quote may be a 13th-century example of an unreliable crowd-sourced story that a later chronicler couldn’t resist writing down (with due cautionary language), but the point, surely, is that the words — and the totally perverse misapplication of 2 Timothy that one can hear in this — are all too representative of much that happened during the “Albigensian Crusade” of 1208-1242.
An obvious fix here would be to explain that the rumored statement by the Abbot might be taken as an allusion to 2 Timothy 2:19 — that talks about God knowing his own, but not the killing part. Quoting this full verse in the Vulgate and in English might be helpful to clarify what the verse does and doesn’t say:
_sed firmum fundamentum Dei stetit habens signaculum hoc cognovit Dominus qui sunt eius et discedat ab iniquitate omnis qui nominat nomen Domini_
“But the firm foundation of God standeth, having this sign: The Lord knoweth which be his, and each one that nameth the name of the Lord, departeth from wickedness.”
Here I’m mostly guided by a Wycliffite translation from around 1395 based directly on the Vulgate; the part about departing from or leaving aside “wickedness,” including massacres, gives the possible allusion to this verse in the “Caedite eos…” quote a special irony.
“Kill them all for the Lord knoweth them that are His” (2 Tim. 2:19)
What is this? What is this lie?
There is nowhere in this passage word “killing”.
KJV: :Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity”.
Please stop misquoting Scripture. Awful to use Scripture to back article.
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Lorcan Bonda is correct. The city was already invested by a rush of genocidal camp followers before the papa legate could have been consulted. Not that this excuses anybody.
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Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.
First time on this site-also last time. A lot of history buffs and tellers of history are thoughtful and use restraint when tempted to berate a particular group or political/religious system. This is not one of those sites. The author of this article is sardonic and smug, arrogantly placing himself as a moral superior over significant historical figures and events. A disservice to history for sure. Hopefully the author will mature, and learn a new approach…..? Thanks
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Everyone knows this is a myth, right? Just like “Let them eat cake!” — this phrase was never uttered. Instead it was passed along as truth, because it sounded true.
The Albigensian Crusade is a fascinating human event, but not really history. The French King was asked to lead the crusade — he consented only because he was confidant it would not work. He was entitled to call up his army for two months at a time. He figured they would siege Beziers for two months, and then disband the army with a “we tried.”
When they army arrived, they began setting up the camp for the siege. A few citizens of the city opened the gate to taunt the arriving army. A few horseman rode in a took the gate — before long everyone joined in the plunder.
There was no strategy, no order, nothing from their commanders — the army was tired from the march. A successful attack was a complete surprise to everyone, but it became “proof of God’s will.”
The speech from Arnaud Amalric never happened. He didn’t have time.
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If Christ returned now, like how he did 2000 years ago, he’d be slain again.
In this modern time of religious freedom, the Vatican should give formal apologies for its atrocities these last 2000 years of the Christian era, or Piscean Age. That includes wiping out, or trying to, of other religions – including Cathars.
The Vatican is ancient Rome adapted to the Christian era.
I’d say the Cathars are still around, and should be revived. The Cathar bible would be basically the Gnostic Nag Hammadi ones. There are other groups who do follow those basic teachings.
Rudi, a quick note that the Vatican, for the Jubilee Year 2000, did release a document entitled “Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past.” Most relevant here might be Section 5.3, a call to repentance by the Church for “The Use of Force in the Service of Truth.”
However, at the time, I recall criticisms that the Church wasn’t going far enough. For example, the Pope might have been present or sent representatives to a commemoration that year of the 400th anniversary of the execution of Giordano Bruno in Rome (17 February 1600). However, a spokesperson replied that Bruno was covered as part of the general statement of repentance to which I refer above. That was a disappointment.
Confronting the genocidal reality and legacy of the Albigensian Crusade (1208-1242) should be a central focus of the Church. The recent statements of Pope Francis against the death penalty can and should be linked to the courageous opposition to the death penalty of many Waldensians and others targeted in this genocidal episode which also normalized capital punishment for heresy, something contrary to most of the earlier teachings of the Church.
Good job. Too bad that Catholicism went soft in the last centuries.
Papal church is Beast of Revelation. Catholicism has nothing to do with Christianity. It is anti-scriptural. Read Bible. Truth will open your eyes.
first read this comment on a spectial forces zippo lighter from vietnam,dident realise it was hundreds of years old!
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I believe it was Mark Twain who said, “if Christ came back today he wouldn’t be a Christian.”. I’ll drink to that.
Most distrubing. So much for the peace-loving image of the papacy. If it were not a historical fact one might think it fiction. It appears to be about money and land, not religious doctrine. The slaughter seems well hidden. Not one Catholic I’ve spoken to is even aware of the massacre. Secrets do become revelations. To what extent does ideology effect the social construction of reality?
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Jason, I know this is awful of me, but the “kill them all !” bit cracks me up. After all a Catholic army army against so-called heretics, what else would they do?!