History of the Albigensians
A history of the crusade against the heretics of southern France down to 1218, by a Cistercian monk who dedicated it to Innocent III. It is the fullest account from the crusaders’ side and a hostile description of what the heretics believed.
The author calls himself brother Peter, a monk of Vaux-de-Cernay, and dedicates the work to Pope Innocent III. He says in the dedication that he has set down nothing that he did not see with his own eyes or hear from persons of great authority, and that the heretics of Toulouse and the other towns, with their defenders, are called Albigensians because that was the name other nations gave to the heretics of the region. The narrative ends with the death of Simon de Montfort before Toulouse.
Peter writes as a partisan. Simon is “our count” and the soldier of Christ; Raymond VI of Toulouse is a deceiver; the dead of Béziers received what they deserved. His second chapter, on the heretics’ sects, is a list of charges drawn up by an enemy, some of them doctrine and some scandal. It is cited in this wiki as what the crusade’s own historian said the heretics believed, and for events at which he or his informants were present.
Cited in
- 1209 to 1229, firm date