Why did the Albigensian Crusades Happen? - Medieval History 

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I've already watched this video before, when it was released for channel members. It's one of the lesser known, yet important an topic, lots of people don't know anything about the Albigensian Crusade. So, thanks again to Kings and General's team for creating this series .

Will you one day cover the French wars of Religion? A very overlooked topic, just like the Albegensian Crusades!!

They lived a life of abstinence and total poverty... I didn't know I was a Cathar!

What in the 40K happened here? "Kill them all, God knows who are His own" is an insane line of thinking

Scary, I was just watching videos about Catharism, Gnosticism and the Bogomils and now you upload this

Yeah… Crusade became a pretty loose term after a while

I was so jealous when I heard this was a Patreon only video, so glad it's been released on youtube! I used to live in the area so I've been to many of these places

I actually did a term paper on this subject. My takeaway was that when you factor in how small, theologically divided, and disorganized the Cathers where, it becomes harder to believe the Church saw the group itself as a real threat. Much more pressing was the pluralistic culture that both tolerated and sheltered the Albigensians, with many defended by their friends and neighbors who refused to turn them over for the usual punishment for heretics in the middle ages, as well as ambivalence and sometimes outright protection provided by local feudal lords like the Raymonds. This coupled with how decentralized authority was in the region as well as its more distant relationship with Northern France played a large part in creating a safe haven for the Cathers while the more metropolitan culture of the Languedoc fostered opportunities for evangelism both by this organization as well as the Waldensians, who some historians look at as a proto-protestant movement of sorts. But yea, my argument was that this crusade was waged mainly to crush the culture that allowed the Cathers to arise in the first place, backed up by the churches reliance on the inquisition to finish the job of stamping them out over the next few decades. Throw in the opportunity for France's monarchy to centralize authority once it dealt with other business (if memory serves, they were fighting the English near the start of the conflict...it's been a few years) it had ample incentive to get involved. Meanwhile, because the pope gave this the sanction of a crusade, it allowed for the level of penance to drastically lower one's time in purgatory without going across the Mediterranean to fight in the Holy Land, so that likely helped keep a steady supply of manpower. (Addendum): Worth noting-this was a period where it was becoming increasingly common for people take issue with the church establishment. Mind, this wasn't out of some pre-modern "down with organized religion" thinking, but because they wanted to be *more* involved with their church, pursue a more personal relationship to God rather than relying on the hierarchy exclusively (hence the rise in mystic orders at around this time), and a growing frustration with priests who neglected their parishes. Keep in mind, while lower clergy (Monks and Abbots) *could* be made up of normal people, high clergy (priests and bishops) at this time were largely if not exclusively drawn from the nobility, often from sons who stood to inherit little because they were firstborn. As may be expected, a lot of these nobles preferred sticking to the cities rather than their more rural diocese, leaving many of their flocks to go months or years between being able to properly attend mass. As one may imagine, this neglect led many to start looking for ways to take care of their own spiritual needs, which provided a perfect breeding ground for movements that allowed and encouraged this type of lay involvement, such as the Cathers and Waldensians.

The Roman soldier and historian ammianus marcellinus once said that no wild beasts are so deadly to humans as most Christians are to each other.

Another amazing video! Thanks for this KnG.

This was the first patreon series that I fully watched so it's nice seeing it here, hopefully other people will find it entertaining

Caesarius of Heisterbach : "Kill them all. The Lord knows whi are his own". You forget to mention that Caesarius of Heisterbach didn't participate to this crusade and that citation is very probably a legend.

Saw this as a channel exclusive. Glad to see it get wider exposure.

Weird timing. I was just writing (briefly) about this crusade for a school assignment about the Medieval inquisition the other day. I'm glad to get some more info from one of my favorite channels!

Been a good year of videos

I was just reading about Catharism the other day. Apparently there are a bunch of scholars who now think the Cathar heresy might not have actually existed, but was fabricated by the Church in the same way they levelled fake accusations at the Knights Templar

A RU-vidr known as Jack Rackham did a video on Innocent III a few years ago. It was really funny. It might worth a watch.

Crusades were not unique to the Middle East. As the video said, there were Crusades in France. But there were also Crusades in Spain, the Balkans, Romania, and Eastern Europe.

Truly an epic gamer moment

18:00 The Cathars weren’t Christians though. They were ultimately a dualistic sect that preached an entirely different religion from traditional Christianity.

Superb series. For the newcomers, this will be a nice journey!

Thanks for the video

French already difficult situation to reclaim English occupied lands and threat , yet the nobles willing to participate in crusade and rob their own countryman instead of united fighting English. Sad

Great video and thanks for your work (it applies to all your videos) ! However a dedicated video or a more detailed intro should have been made about the key words, such as Cathars and heresy. At least to clarify or define some terms and contexts => Catharism or Cathars aren't the historical terms : cathar is a word used for designating many heresies throughout medieval christian Occident, not specifically the Albigensians (as the Church designated them) or Good men (as they designated themselves). The word catharism was popularised by Charles Schmidt in 1848, then popularised in the 50s-60s by movements promoting the local cultures and the history of the Occitanie region (in a brief summary). To designate these heretics, the terms Albigensians, Good men or even Albigenses should be employed (as the primary source from both side, Inquisition and Albigensians, never designated the heretics or themselves as Cathars) Similarly, the fight against heresies, such as the albigensian or waldensian, is associated with a great effort from the Church to quell any dissident movements while the Church try to ensure its oversight and supervision of the medieval life in Occident. For example: the Gregorian Reforms sharpen the religious dogma in order to ensure a more homogeneous religious framework, cohesive and loyal structure under the Pope. By sharpening the dogma, inevitably what you accepted earlier can now be excluded ; thus becoming a potential heresy and adversary if it doesn't integrate the new mold : leading to great efforts from the Church in order to ensure the respect of its tenets and to fight (not necesseraly militarily) dissident movements. I am not an expert, but some exhibitions and museum in the South of France (such as Toulouse) insist a lot on these details --- So I humbly place them here in complement to K&G great work

0:32 what are these bicycle looking ahh horse hybrids?

Crusaders: are we the baddies?

Wonderful video, again! 🏹🔥⚔

Fascinating!

Fantastic as usual do you guys plan to redo the third crusade? Just curious I think the video even though the graphics are a little outdated are pretty good. I don’t think you have to go through all that effort again.

Yes! Finally, we're going into 11 eyes lore now!

Life was mental back then.

I already watched. But - I'm here again

There is a special exhibition in the museum st raymond and couvent des jacobins on the subject at Toulouse until january the 5

I do hope we get a Hussite wars video soon to!

40 Day Rule... considering the expense, difficulty and time the journey to get there and back, 40 days doesn't seem much time once you get there! 😮

Pope Innocent III is such a misleading name.

Yeah, this happened to a buddy of mine

Using mercenaries worked out pretty well in that initial siege by chance, but it doesn't end well in terms of restraint. A larger and more organized force at a different time would have dealt with the issue better in my limited view. The massacre of Catholics, the young, and the (likely/possibly) majority of the less truly committed gnostics was morality and even practically unacceptable. To go along with that though, the fact that these gnostics still get apologia dished out for them even today is disturbing. Their beliefs and actions weren't harmless.

Things like this are tje reason we created a secular society and any form of extremism is worrying.

excelllent!

Didn't they already do the Albigensian crusades?

What game is used for the 3D scenes? They look great btw.

It's not ViSSSSScount, it's Vy-count.

Ah yes, the crusades against others who interpreted God in other ways.

A very interesting small series that we could enjoy month ago with the subscription! Glad than gradually more of this content we helped to create gets to the wider audience

On support videos you have history of prussia. I have one question in which period you start this series?

I was here

what about the bosnian crusade? is it even well know what happend or

They where heretics

The power of Christ compels you!

Will this series cover the vaudois(aka waldenses)? They were not as big of a movement as the albigensians but they were around at the same time, they got caught in the cross fire (Since they weren't loyal to the pope). They are very interesting, especially to protestants, since they were a bible movement (unlike the albigensians who rejected the bible). And of course, they still exist today!

MY FAVORITE CHANNEL KINGS ND GENERALS CAN YOU MAKE A VIDEO ON THE AFGHANS (PASHTUNS) PEOPLE LIVING IN PAKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN SPEAKING PASHTO, NATIONAL LANGUAGE OF AFGHANISTAN

Please cover what Charlemagne did to the Saxons next!

Albigensians are not Christians, per Christian history. They are Gnostics.

🔥🔥

After finishing the 5 episodes of the Albigensian Crusades, idk if he is going to finish on the Reconquista episode or any other videos from Members Only because I'm excited to watch more episodes from Members Only since I can't buy it.

But this video stated exactly that! All the political reasons are highlighted!

eraaly nongel

imagine commenting AFTER September 21st LOL

pateron gang

Quite the title but Cathars are not Christian, they are gnostics Gnostics are as Christians as Muslims are Shintoist The early church fathers and Saint Augustin, who was a former gnostic himself, spent countless years saying that Gnosticism is not Christianity since they are that different. Denying the Resurrection is a start for one.

Heresy!

I'm "Catholic" by birth and I'd be down to clown a bit with the Cathars. I don't think this world is an "in between" place. I think this is hell and we are trapped here until we reach enlightenment, we'll just be reborn here again and again suffering our fates until we repent for whatever past evils we've done etc. Or, it's just some random stuff and we all die that's it.

Deus vult!

the evils of organised religion

👍👍👍

The pope hated the Cathars because they didn't collect any taxes for him. If their doctrine were to spread, Catholicism could well run out of money and go extinct. Of course that could not be tolerated. Rome also ordered the king of Hungary to go after the Bogomils of Bosnia (same doctrine as the Cathars of France). There are conflicting accounts on whether the Hungarians actually did it.

I see a lot of people in the comments who clearly misunderstand what “heresy” means and why it matters, so I’ll try to put it into a secular context. To people who don’t know better, engineering and physics probably seem very similar. They are similar, yes, but definitely not the same. Physicists focus on learning about abstract concepts and ideas to develop theories to advance the cutting edge of science. Engineers learn about all the factors which go into building real-world objects, with all of the messy variables and imperfections that come with it. I’m not saying either is better or worse, I’m a physicist and my wife is an engineer, but they’re definitely not the same thing. I should not go around claiming to be an engineer, because if I attempted to build a bridge, people might get hurt. Similarly, my wife should not claim to be a physicist, because… idk she’d waste grant money or something (admittedly engineers are more important lol). Now then, before looking back at the Cathars, let’s take a detour to look at a much more clear heresy: The Moonies. The Moonies, who call themselves the “Family Federation for World Peace and Unification” or “Unification Church” are a sect from South Korea who believe that their founder, Sun Moon, was the second coming of Christ and that his teachings supersede anything in the Bible, they deny both the Apostle’s and Nicene creeds which most Christians hold, and a bunch of other wild things like mass weddings and of course that all women should sleep with Sun Moon lol. To anyone who actually knows about them, they are seen as a non-Christian cult, but they wear the skin of Christianity to lure in followers who don’t know the truth about them so that they can take their money. Back to the Cathars, they are MUCH weaker heresy. What do they believe in? Well mostly similarish stuff, but a dualistic god? The material world is Satanic? Admittedly I don’t know much about Cathars, but I know that those beliefs are pretty unique to Gnosticism. But is it heresy? Well that’s pretty subjective. Most Catholics and Protestants still see each other as Christians despite their differences, so why is Gnosticism a step too far? Or Moonism for that matter? The most common things I see Christians using as baselines for heresy are the following: 1) Do they not hold the Apostle’s and/or Nicene creeds? 2) Do they believe some other text is above the Bible? 3) Do they have a suspiciously charismatic leader? 4) By far the most subjective, Do they hold any beliefs that just plain seem weird? If the answer to any of the above is yes, then it’s probably considered a heresy by most Christians. If you’re not religious, this all probably sounds like stupid made up nonsense, and you’ve probably thought “look at these idiots caring about their made up stories” or something similar. But please, try to think about how you would feel if you genuinely believed people’s immortal souls were on the line here. Or if we must remain secular, imagine that if these people continue believing incorrectly they’ll get cancer or something. Suddenly this matters a whole lot more, doesn’t it? I’m definitely not apologizing for the massacre of the Cathars or saying that [insert religious war of choice here] is justified, but it annoys me to no end every time I see atheists running around smugly proclaiming that these people were just stupid or petty or whatever else. The people of the past weren’t stupid, they were just like us, and we should try to remember that. Thank you to anyone who actually bothered to read all of that lol

Fun fact: the anti-materialist world view made by Cathars would later form various esoteric movements that would lead into both marxism and naziism.

A quick search will show that Cathars aren't/weren't Christian, and not just from a Catholic perspective. For example, Dualism: The Cathars believed in two gods: a good god and an evil god. This dualistic view contradicts the monotheistic teaching of Scripture, which asserts the existence of only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4). Jesus said it is literally the the Greatest Commandment, and they broke it. If you think Jesus can be wrong, you aren't a Christian. Rejection of the Old Testament: The Cathars rejected the Old Testament, viewing it as the work of the evil god. This is in direct opposition to the Christian belief that the Old Testament is divinely inspired and an integral part of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16). The NT can't exist without the OT. It is a single story with over 300 prophecies fulfilled by Jesus. Jesus’ Humanity: The Cathars denied the humanity of Jesus, believing Him to be purely a spiritual being. This contradicts the Scriptural teaching of the incarnation, which states that Jesus was both fully God and fully man (John 1:14, Philippians 2:6-8). If Jesus wasn't/isn't a man, we are all still dead in our sins, and the NT also makes no sense, even if you sweep the OT under the rug as a "cope." Reincarnation: The Cathars believed in reincarnation, which is not supported by Scripture. The Bible teaches that humans die once and then face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Cathars were about as Christian as Muslims, Mormons, or Jehovah's Witnesses are, since they also believe in a fake Jesus, not rooted in Scripture or history. I'm not saying the Crusade was or wasn't justified, but they were pagans, not Christians. Christianity is not a "pick and choose" faith when it comes to the foundational elements of it. Good people can have disagreements about certain interpretations, but not these I've listed, at the least.

quite the title.

Christ is King 👑

The intro is really problematic. It is very questionable whether cathars really were dualists or had anything to do with bogomils. Furthermore there is no contemporary evidence of bogomils being dualist in the firs place. But the claim that "cathar priests and bishops took less money from their subjects" is just strange. Show me one document abouth "cathar bishops" (somewhat elusive phenomenon itself) taking any money from anyone.

I visited Carcassonne and Béziers while staying in Sète. Beautiful places. Hard to believe such death and destruction occurred there. They were fighting and killing for their beliefs in who believes in God the proper way? Unbelievable to me.

They were not Christian. They didn’t even believe Jesus was God, thereby not Christians.

Guys, I won't watch these videos if you don't release the full series. I'm gonna unsubscribe on my RSS feed.

Glad the membership fees goes to paying the team living wages. They deserve it

The people of Béziers were already godless jerks at that time. Some things don't change.

The "peaceful" religion of Christianity!

When folks in the U.S. talk about wanting a Christian nation, I often ponder which Christianity they are referring to? they'd be wise to study the religious wars of Europe but alas...they don't even read their bibles.

innocent not so innocent eh !

The cathars were asking for it tbh

Based crusaders

“I believe in a Christian god” “I also believe in a Christian god, but also believe there’s another god that-“ “I’m going to burn you to death now”

The cathars are the most interesting of christian sects, with more straightforward answers to matters catholicism has never been able to satisfactorally explain. And with surprisingly forward thinking ideas for their time. The Albigensian crusade is one of the worst crimes in the long history of atrocities the catholic church are guilty of, and the world could have been better today if instead catharism had proliferated.

Well, actually it was not the first time that the Crusaders attacked "fellow Christians", have you forgotten the fourth crusade?

Cathars had it coming.

Finally something that is critical about Christians in Europe, long live Atheism

The Catholic Church, a.k.a. The Great Apostasy. Let the hate and arguments begin. 😈

Cathars are not Christian.

Guys I want to know this, at 14:52 What is a papal indulgence, is it a pile of gold or some piece of paper that say "i served for the Pope", it must be somthing right? Because why would they just leave without taking any loot from the Crusade. With this papal indulgence, are they allowed to commit whatever sin they pleased, like murder and stuff? And how could you tell someone have the indulgence and who doesnt? So yeah if you have a answer pls help me understand or not just like the comment so that someone who know see, thank you very much

"Crusades where justified because they were defence wars" Ok man, explain this.