nd strong; combining tact with authority;
pitiless towards his enemies as became his mission of doing justice in
the name of the faith and the Church; a leader faithful to his friends
and devoted to their common cause whilst reckoning upon them for his own
private purposes, he possessed those natural qualities which confer
spontaneous empire over men and those abilities which lure them on by
opening a way for the fulfilment of their interested hopes. And as for
himself, by the stealthy growth of selfishness, which is so prone to
become developed when circumstances are tempting, he every day made his
personal fortunes of greater and greater account in his views and his
conduct. His ambitious appetite grew by the very difficulties it
encountered as well as by the successes it fed upon. The Count of
Toulouse, persecuted and despoiled, complained loudly in the ears of the
pope; protested against the charge of favoring the heretics; offered and
actually made the concessions demanded by Rome; and, as security, gave up
seven of his principal strongholds. But, being ever too irresolute and
too weak to keep his engagements to his subjects' detriment no less than
to stand out against his adversaries' requirements, he was continually
falling back into the same condition, and keeping off attacks which were
more and more urgent by promises which always remained without effect.
After having sent to Rome embassy upon embassy with explanations and
excuses, he twice went thither himself, in 1210 and in 1215; the first
time alone, the second with his young son, who was then thirteen, and who
was at a later period Raymond VII. He appealed to the pope's sense of
justice; he repudiated the stories and depicted the violence of his
enemies; and finally pleaded the rights of his son, innocent of all that
was imputed to himself, and yet similarly attacked and despoiled.
Innocent III. had neither a narrow mind nor an unfeeling heart; he
listened to the father's pleading, took an interest in the youth, and
wrote, in April, 1212, and January, 1213, to his legates in Languedoc and
to Simon de Montfort, "After having led the army of the crusaders into
the domains of the Count of Toulouse, ye have not been content with
invading all the places wherein there were heretics, but ye have further
gotten possession of those where-in there was no suspicion of heresy.
. . . The same ambassadors have objected to us that ye have usurped
what was another's