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Tuesday, 3 April 2012

"Kill Them All, For God Will Know His Own" (Arnaud Amaury) - The Béziers Massacre July 22, 1209

Posted on 04:06 by Unknown

Arnaud Amaury


Peire Cardenal




















Peire Cardenal`s (1204-1272) satirical and moral account with the orgy of violence which ended the Albigensian Crusade ("everyone has what he deserved
according to its vice or virtue")

Razos es qu'ieu m'esbaudei


Razos es qu'ieu m'esbaudei
E sia jauzens e gais
E diga cansos e lais
E un sirventes desplei,
Quar leialtatz a vencut


Falsetat, e non a gaire
Quez ieu ai auzit retraire
Qu'us fortz trachers a perdut
Son poder e sa vertut.



("J'ai toutes les raisons de me réjouir,
d'être joyeux et gai,
de chanter, de dire des vers
et de déployer mon sirventès


car Loyauté a vaincu
Fausseté:
on m'a rapporté il n'y a guère
que le plus perfide des traîtres
a perdu sa force et son pouvoir.")



Dieus fa, e fara e fei,
Aissi com es Dieus verais,
Drech als pros e als savais
E merce, segon lur lei.
Quar a la paia van tut,
Pope Inoncent III


L'enganat e l'enganaire,
Si com Abels a son fraire.
Que·l trachor seran destrut
E li trait ben vengut.





("Etant Dieu véridique,
Dieu fait, fera et fit
droit aux preux et aux méchants
et miséricorde selon leur propre loi.
Car, à la paye, tous y vont ,
le trompé comme le trompeur,


et, de la même manière qu'Abel avec son frère,
les traîtres seront détruits
et les trahis bien venus.")




Dieu prec que trachors barrei
E los degol e los abais
Aissi con fes los Algais,
Quar son de peior trafei.
Quez aisso es ben sauput:


Pieger es trachers que laire,
Qu'atressi com hom pot faire
De convers monge tondut,
Fai hom de trachor pendut.



("Je prie Dieu qu'il renverse les traîtres,
les précipite et les abaisse,
comme il fit des Algais,
car ils sont de pire commerce.
Et ceci est bien connu :
"Le traître est pire que le larron" ,
et, de même qu'on peut faire


d'un convers un moine tondu,
on fait d'un traître un pendu.")


De lops e de fedas vei
Que de las fedas son mais,
E per un austor que nais
Son mil perditz, fe qu'ie'us dei.


Az aisso es conogut
Que hom murtriers ni raubaire
Non plas tant a Dieu lo paire
Ni tant non ama son frut
Com fai del pobol menut.



("Pour ce qui est des loups et des brebis,
je vois que les brebis sont en plus grand nombre,
et pour un autour qui naît
il y a mille perdrix, par la foi que je vous dois.


D'après cela l'on connaît
que l'homme meurtrier et ravisseur
ne plaît pas autant à Dieu le Père
et qu'il n'aime pas autant sa lignée
que celle des petites gens .")



Assatz pot aver arnei
E cavals ferrans e bais
E tors e murs e palais
Rics hom, sol que Dieu renei.


Doncs ben a lo sen perdut
Aquel acui es veiaire
Que tollen l'autrui repaire
Deia venir a salut,
Ni·l dons Dieus quar a tolgut.



("Il peut avoir en suffisance armures,
chevaux gris et bais,
tours, murs et palais
l'homme puissant, pourvu qu'il renie Dieu.
Donc il a bien perdu la raison
celui à qui il semble
qu'en s'emparant de la demeure d'autrui
il doive arriver à son salut,
et que Dieu lui donnera parce qu'il a pris.")



Quar Dieus ten son arc tendut,
E trai aqui on deu traire
E fai lo colp que deu faire:


A quecs si com a mergut,
Segon vizi o vertut.

("Car Dieu tient son arc tendu,
et il tire où il doit tirer
et il porte le coup qu'il doit porter :
chacun a ce qu'il a mérité,
selon son vice ou sa vertu.")

"Béziers was a Languedoc stronghold of Catharism, which the Catholic Church condemned as heretical and which Catholic forces exterminated in the Albigensian Crusade.
Béziers was one of the first places to be attacked. The crusaders reached the town July 21, 1209. Béziers' Catholics were given an ultimatum to hand over the heretics or leave before the crusaders besieged the city and to "avoid sharing their fate and perishing with them."[5] However, they refused and resisted with the Cathars. The town was sacked on July 22, 1209 and in the bloody massacre, no one was spared, not even Catholic priests and those who took refuge in the churches. One of the commanders of the crusade was the Papal Legate Arnaud-Amaury (or Arnald Amalaricus, Abbot of Citeaux). When asked by a Crusader how to tell Catholics from Cathars once they had taken the city, the abbot supposedly replied, "Kill them all, God will know His own" - "Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet". (This often quoted phrase is sourced from Caesarius of Heisterbach along with a story of all the heretics who desecrated a copy of the Gospels and threw it down from the town's walls.[6]) Amalric's own version of siege, described in his letter to Pope in August 1209 (col.139), states:"While discussions were still going on with the barons about the release of those in the city who were deemed to be Catholics, the servants and other persons of low rank and unarmed attacked the city without waiting for orders from their leaders. To our amazement, crying "to arms, to arms!", within the space of two or three hours they crossed the ditches and the walls and Béziers was taken. Our men spared no one, irrespective of rank, sex or age, and put to the sword almost 20,000 people. After this great slaughter the whole city was despoiled and burnt.."
The invaders burned the cathedral of Saint Nazaire, which collapsed on those who had taken refuge inside. The town was pillaged and burnt. None were left alive. (A plaque opposite the cathedral records the 'Day of Butchery' perpetrated by the 'northern barons'.) A few parts of the Romanesque cathedral of St-Nazaire survived, and repairs started in 1215. The restoration, along with that of the rest of the city, continued until the 15th century." (Wikipedia source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Béziers")


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