| Raymond VI held vast territories and kept his lands in a very liberal state. He maintained communal freedoms and extended exemptions from taxation. According to Henri Prienne, in his book A History of Europe: “At the end of the 12th century Languedoc was swarming with those mystics who aspired to lead the Church and the age back to apostolic simplicity, condemning both the religious hierarchy and the social order...” (34) The church was not pleased with the state of affairs and sent Pierre de Castelnau, appointed in 1199 by Pope Innocent III as one of the Papal legates to suppress the Cathars in Languedoc. (35) Raymond VI was excommunicated twice, the first time following the attempt by Pierre to exterminate Cathar heresy which failed, apparently, and the second time by the Council of Montpellier in 1211, just prior to his organizing resistance to the Albigensian crusade. What happened though was Simon de Montfort conquered Toulouse and Raymond was exiled to England where his brother in law, John Plantagenet was king until 1216. It was under John’s reign that the revolt of the barons occurred which led to the signing of Magna Carta. Raymond VI third marriage was most significant. In October 1196 at Rouen, he married Joan Plantagenet. She died on September 4, 1199. They had two children: Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse (1198–1249) and Joan of Toulouse (1198-1255). Today, Raymond VI is honored in a painting done in 1904 in the Minnesota Supreme Court next to paintings of Moses, Confucius and Socrates. The scene represents Raymond VI of Toulouse standing before the papal legate in 1208. He successfully argued before the papacy for city freedoms, extended exemptions from taxation, and protection of the communal territory from the church. Personally, I think this painting’s location is deserving. Through his mother, Joan of England, Raymond VII was a grandson of Henry II of England and a nephew of both King Richard I and John of England. In 1243 Raymond married Margaret of Lusignan, the daughter of Hugh X of Lusignan and Isabella of Angoulême, but they had no children. Apparently, Raymond had a failed marriage to a fairy and so he was cursed in the fairy tale of Melusine, to spy on his wife and have her leave forever. We will explore the role of Melusine shortly. On September 14, 1224, the Albigensian fighters surrendered and the war ended with a peace treaty between the lords and the church. Bernard of Clairvaux had declined the invitation of King Baldwin II to found a Cistercian monastery in the Holy City, (36) but when the Knights Templars were visiting Jerusalem, King Baldwin II granted them rooms in the royal palace, the Templum Salomonis. (Temple of Solomon - currently the Al Aqsa mosque.) (37) |
Bernard of Clairvaux, (1090–1153) was a French abbot and the prime leader in the reform of Benedictine monasticism that caused the formation of the Cistercian order in 1098. Bernard was responsible for founding the abbey of Clairvaux in Champagne in 1115. Clairvaux founded its first daughter-house Trois-Fontaines just three years later. When Bernard died in 1153, he had been responsible for the founding of seventy communities and those in turn founded another ninety-four, comprising half the Cistercian order. (38) It was at Clairvaux that Bernard was first thought to preach the immediate benefits of the “Virgin Mary” in the faith of Christianity. (39) Bernard attended the Council of Troyes in 1128 and set up the Rules of the Knights Templar. (40) André de Montbard, one of the founders of the Knights Templar, was a half-brother of Bernard's mother. Not only was Andre de Montbard related to Bernard, so was Hugh de Payens, founder of the Knights Templar. (41) In 1145, one of Barnard’s students Eugenius Tertius (Eugene III) became pope and head of the Catholic Church. His ascendancy led to the 2nd crusade from 1147-1149. The Knights Templar had been selected to lead the military in this Second Crusade. The Knights Templars, or “Soldiers of Christ,” as they were also called, were a military order founded in 1119, by the Catholic Church to protect their own men from robbery along their travels. They were officially recognized by Papal Bull in 1139 and quickly grew to become the wealthiest and most powerful charity in the whole Christian world. The non-combatant members made up ninety percent of the Order and founded “branch banking” in an early attempt to diversity the locations of their fortune. (42) Soon they had control over one thousand forts and land estate holdings across Europe and the Holy Land. They traditionally wore white mantles with a Red Cross on it (61e). Their emblem was a Red Cross. I should not have to remark here, that the “Red Cross” was the A. muscaria. (34) Prienne, Henri. A History of Europe, Routledge, 2010 (35) Sumption, Jonathan (1978). The Albigensian Crusade. Faber and Faber (36) Bernard, Trearises vol. 3, On Grace and Free Choice, trans. Daniel O'Donovan, In Praise of the New Knighthood, trans. Conrad Greenia (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1977), p. 115 (37) Mystery of Manna, p. 109-110 (38) Jean Leclercq, Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercian Spirit, trans., Claire Lavoie (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1976), pp. 15-16 (39) Smith, William (2010). Catholic Church Milestones: People and Events That Shaped the Institutional Church. Indianapolis: Left Coast. p. 32 (40) Bernard, Treatises, vol. 3, p. 138 n. 1; Hans Eberhard Mayer, The Crusades, trans. John Gillingham (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972), p. 82 (41) Mystery of Manna, p. 109-110; J. Richard, "Le milieu familial," in Bernard de Clairvaux, Commission d'Histoire de l'Ordre de Citeau (Paris: Alsatia, 1953), pp. 13-14 (42) Martin, Sean (2005). The Knights Templar: The History & Myths of the Legendary Military Order. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press., P. 47; Nicholson, Helen (2001). The Knights Templar: A New History. Stroud: Sutton. P. 4 |