A Most Holy War by Pegg Mark Gregory;

Author:Pegg, Mark Gregory;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA - OSO
Published: 2008-12-10T16:00:00+00:00

XII

THE LITTLE FOXES that were spoiling the vines of the Lord of Hosts in Provincia have been seized,” Innocent III wrote to Arnau Amalric on Tuesday, 15 January 1213. The Holy Land was in much greater peril and urgently needed help. “We therefore hereby enjoin you, dear brother, to devote your earnest attention to negotiating treaties for peace and a truce with our dearest son in Christ, Pere [II] the illustrious king of Aragon, and counts and barons and other prudent men,” so that the horrid war in Provincia will end in abiding concord. “You should thus cease to call Christians to arms,” until otherwise instructed. The pope suspended the holy war on heresy. Seven months earlier the kings of Aragon, Navarre, and Castile decimated the grand army of the Almohad caliph Muhammad al-Nasir on the Andalusian plain of Las Navas de Tolosa.1 Innocent III was elated with the victors, and Pere, once more attending to the other side of the Pyrénées, found the papal ear solicitous. Aragonese envoys—the royal notary Master Colom and Hispan, bishop of Segorbe-Albarracín—advised the pope throughout autumn and winter on the injustices of the crusaders. Simon de Montfort was accused of occupying lands never poisoned with heresy, and, as he accepted homage from persons on these lands rather than expunging or slaughtering them, he tacitly admitted these individuals were Catholic. The pope agreed and ordered all lands restored to the counts of Foix and Comminges. “Although it is necessary to cut off putrid flesh,” he chided Arnau Amalric three days after he stopped the crusade, “the healing hand must be applied carefully.” Instead, wantonly attacking the count of Toulouse without apostolic approval was the work of “greedy hands.” The count, entrusting his lands, son, and wife to the king of Aragon, was now a most biddable penitent. Innocent III enjoined his legates to once again summon a general council to review the crusade and assess the vigor of the little foxes.2

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