ed him to kneel submissively to the Pope,
surrender his crown, and receive it back as a vassal of the papacy
under obligation to pay heavy tribute. By the same weapon of an
interdict Innocent forced the mighty Philip Augustus to take back a
wife whom he had divorced without papal consent. And in Germany
Innocent twice secured the creation of an emperor of his own choice,
the second being the child, Frederick II, who had been brought up
under the Pope's own guardianship.

Among other spectacular features of his reign Innocent founded the
Inquisition, and thus formally divorced the Church from its earlier
preaching of universal peace and love. Moreover, he attempted a
diversion of the tremendous, wasted power of the crusades. He wanted
holy wars fought nearer home, and preached a crusade against John of
England. The mere threat brought John to his knees; and Innocent then
turned his newfound weapon against the heretics of southern France,
the Albigenses. These unfortunate people, having a certain religious
firmness wholly incomprehensible to John, refused submission.

The crusade against them became an actual and awful reality. In the
name of Christ, men devastated a Christian country. The spirit of
persecution thus aroused became rampant in religion and remained so
for over half a thousand years. Rebels against the Church accepted its
most evil teaching, and in their brief periods of power became
torturers and executioners in their turn.

This first of the "religious wars" achieved its purpose. It
exterminated or at least suppressed the heresy by exterminating every
heretic who dared assert himself. Vast numbers of wholly orthodox
Christians perished also, since even they fought against the
"crusaders" in defending their homes. War did not change its hideous
face because man had presumed to place a blessing on it. Next to
Italy, Southern France had been the most cultured land of Europe. The
crusaders left it almost a desert. It had been practically independent
of the kings at Paris, henceforth it offered them no resistance.

A more excusable direction given by Innocent to the crusading
enthusiasm was against the Saracens in Spain. A new and tremendous
army of these had come over from Africa to reenforce their brethren,
who shared the peninsula with the Spaniards. The Pope's preaching sent
sixty thousand crusaders to help the Spaniards against this swarm of
invaders, and the Saracens were completely defeated. The batt