128 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
The following year Honorius made the same concession to James I of Aragon
in a letter to the archbishop of tarragona after James had assured him that Jews in
his realm were already easily distinguishable enough and that legislation on dress
was being used as a way of extorting Jewish money.140 Nevertheless, papal preoccu-
pation with the desire to distinguish Jews and Muslims from Christians by their
clothing continued: in 1221 Honorius again complained to the archbishop of
toledo that he had heard reports that Jews there could not be distinguished from
Christians and that the archbishop must make sure that they wear clothes which
set them apart.141
pApAL AUtHOrIZAtION OF tHE ALBIgENSIAN
CrUSAdE ANd JEwS
during the late twelfth and the thirteenth century, popes were seriously disturbed
by the theological, social, and political threat of the Cathar heresy and used cru-
sading as a means of promoting orthodox Catholic belief in Christian Europe and
in particular in the south of France. According to contemporary clerical accounts,
Cathars held that there were two gods, a god of the spiritual world and a god who
had created the material world in which the soul is imprisoned, and that they
believed that to free their souls, they must give up everything ‘worldly’—including
abstinence from meat, milk, or eggs and from sexual relations—and must deny
the trinity and renounce the Church; hence they could not be considered
Christians at all.142 By 1200 Innocent III believed that Catharism had become so
widespread in the remote, mountainous regions of south-western France that he
was seriously concerned not only at the threat such beliefs posed to orthodox
Christianity but because many Cathars were supposedly being protected by
southern French lords.
In response to this perceived threat and following the murder of his legate peter
of Castelnau in 1208, seemingly by Count raymond vI of toulouse, Innocent III
proclaimed a crusade in the south of France. Since raymond himself came to
terms with the Church in an attempt to save his skin, the crusaders invaded the
lands of his vassal raymond roger trencavel instead—which resulted in the
destruction of the towns of Béziers and Carcassonne.143 The northern French
baron, Simon de Montfort, was given control of the trencavel lands and over the
next two years annexed many castles and villages in those areas of the south of
140 Honorius III, ‘Ad audientiam nostram’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.156–8; Simonsohn, p.111.
141 Honorius III, ‘Cum in generali concilio’ (24 November 1221), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.168–70;
Simonsohn, pp.118–19.
142 peter of les vaux-de-Cernay, The History of the Albigensian Crusade, ed. and trans. w. A and
M. d. Sibly (woodbridge, 1998), pp.10–14.
143 peter of les vaux-de-Cernay, The History of the Albigensian Crusade, ed. Sibly and Sibly,
pp.48–55.