Editing Catharism (section)

=== Massacre ===
{{Main|Massacre at Béziers}}
The crusader army came under the command, both spiritually and militarily, of the papal legate [[Arnaud Amalric]], [[Abbot]] of [[Cîteaux]]. In the first significant engagement of the war, the town of [[Béziers]] was [[siege|besieged]] on 22 July 1209. The Catholic inhabitants of the city were granted the freedom to leave unharmed, but many refused and opted to stay and fight alongside the Cathars.

The townsmen spent much of 1209 fending off the crusaders. The Béziers army attempted a [[sortie (siege warfare)|sortie]] but was quickly defeated, then pursued by the crusaders back through the gates and into the city.  [[Arnaud Amalric]], the [[Cistercian order|Cistercian]] abbot-commander, wrote to Pope Innocent III, that during negotiations his soldiers had taken the initiative without waiting for orders. The doors of the church of St Mary Magdalene were broken down and the refugees dragged out and slaughtered. Reportedly, at least 7,000 men, women and children were killed there by Catholic forces, though some scholars dispute this number.{{sfn|Tyerman|2006|p=591}} Elsewhere in the town, many more thousands were mutilated and killed. Prisoners were blinded, dragged behind horses, and used for target practice.{{sfnp|Johnson|1976|p=252}}  What remained of the city was razed by fire.

Arnaud Amalric wrote "Today your Holiness, twenty thousand heretics were put to the sword, regardless of rank, age, or sex."{{sfnp|Sibly|Sibly|2003|p=128}} The permanent population of Béziers at that time was then between 10,000 and 14,500, but local refugees seeking shelter within the city walls could conceivably have increased the number to 20,000, though scholars dispute the figure as figurative.<ref name=marvin>{{cite web|url=http://warandgame.com/2009/03/25/the-storm-of-beziers-2|author=Laurence M. Marvin|title=The Storm of Béziers|publisher=Warandgame.com|date=25 March 2009|accessdate=22 November 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426000448/http://warandgame.com/2009/03/25/the-storm-of-beziers-2|archivedate=26 April 2012}}</ref>

According to a report thirty years later by a non-witness, Arnaud Amalric is supposed to have been asked how to tell Cathars from Catholics. His alleged reply, according to [[Caesarius of Heisterbach]], a fellow Cistercian, was {{lang|la|"[[Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius]]"}}—"Kill them all, the Lord will recognise His own".{{sfnp|Moore|2003|p=180}}

After the success of his siege of Carcassonne, which followed the massacre at Béziers in 1209, Simon de Montfort was designated as leader of the Crusader army. Prominent opponents of the Crusaders were [[Raymond Roger Trencavel]], viscount of Carcassonne, and his feudal overlord [[Peter II of Aragon]], who held fiefdoms and had a number of [[vassal]]s in the region. Peter died fighting against the crusade on 12 September 1213 at the [[Battle of Muret]]. Simon de Montfort was killed on 25 June 1218 after maintaining [[Siege of Toulouse (1217–1218)|a siege of Toulouse]] for nine months.<ref>''[[Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise]]'' laisse 205.</ref>