It would be impossible, in a few words, to tell the whole story of this Albigensian movement.  Undoubtedly the term stood for a variety of theological opinions, all of which were in opposition to the teachings of Rome.  “From the very invectives of their enemies,” says Hallam, “and the acts of the Inquisition, it is manifest that almost every shade of heterodoxy was found among these dissidents, till it vanished in a simple protestation against the wealth and tyranny of the clergy.”  Many of the tenets of these enthusiasts were undoubtedly borrowed from the ancient Manicheism, and would be pronounced heretical by every modern evangelical denomination.  But associated with those holding such doctrines were numerous reformers, whose chief offense consisted in their incipient Protestantism.  However heretical any of these sects may have been, it is impossible to make them out enemies to the social order, except as all opponents of established religious traditions create disturbance.  “What these bodies held in common,” says Hardwick, “and what made them equally the prey of the inquisitor, was their unwavering belief in the corruption of the medieval church, especially as governed by the Roman pontiffs.”

In 1208 Dominic visited Languedoc a second time, and on his way he encountered the papal legates returning in pomp to Rome, foiled in their attempt to crush this growing schism.  To them he administered his famous rebuke:  “It is not the display of power and pomp, cavalcades of retainers, and richly-houseled palfreys, or by gorgeous apparel, that the heretics win proselytes; it is by zealous preaching, by apostolic humility, by austerity, by seeming, it is true, but by seeming holiness.  Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth.”  It is extremely unfortunate for the reputation of Dominic that he ever departed from the spirit of these noble words, which so clearly state the conditions of true religious progress.

Dominic now gathered about him a few men of like spirit and began his task of preaching down heresy.  But “the enticing words of man’s wisdom” failed to win the Albigensians from what they believed to be the words of God.  So, unmindful of his admonition to the papal legates, Dominic obtained permission of Innocent III. to hold courts, before which he might summon all persons suspected of heresy.  When eloquence and courts failed, the pope let loose the “dogs of war.”  Then followed twenty years of frightful carnage, during which hundreds of thousands of heretics were slain, and many cities were laid waste by fire and sword.  “This was to punish a fanaticism,” says Hallam, “ten thousand times more innocent than their own, and errors which, according to the worst imputations, left the laws of humanity and the peace of social life unimpaired.”  Peace was concluded in 1229, but the persecution of heretics went on.