The Albigensians: Their Origins and the Action of the Church in the 12th Century

an important role in the Albigensian affair, was it not necessary to place all the elements of a sound discussion before his eyes?

In the course of the narrative, we have had to blame the conduct of some men who, in the Church of the Midi, occupied high positions and to whom our heart would have wished to give only admiration and praise. We have only blamed them after the popes themselves, and even then, we have only done so with the intention of assessing their era rather than the individuals themselves. The reader will be convinced that the Albigensians managed to form a vast conspiracy, a society with secret actions, a second city weaving plots against the city of God. The letter of Yves of Narbonne to the archbishop of Bordeaux, at the beginning of the 13th century, has remained as if to illuminate the shadows in which they enveloped themselves. But not all bishops pierced the thickness of this darkness; some perhaps yielded to favor, and others were too timid in the presence of difficult circumstances. This is what we had to deplore, not by accusing, however, but by pitying men who, better informed or better supported, would have