ubject to France, was actually
ruled by Raymond VI., "by grace of God" Count of Toulouse. Perhaps if
this province had not possessed and controlled several ports on the
Mediterranean, while France had none at all, it might not have been
discovered that this home of the "gay science," and of minstrelsy, and
of all that was gentle and refining, was in fact the nursery of a
dangerous heresy, and that the poetic, music-loving children of
Provence reviled the cross and worshipped the devil!

We can easily imagine that in this highly developed community there had
arisen a spirit of inquiry into prevailing conditions and beliefs in
the Church. And we can also imagine that a crafty sovereign saw in
this an opportunity to serve his own ends. And so, Pope Innocent III.
ordered a Crusade, and John de Montfort not only opened up the
Mediterranean ports for Philip, but brought Toulouse, the greatest of
the remaining feudal states, into subjection to the King of France; at
the same time forever silencing the voice of the heretic, of the
minstrel, and of the harp; even the speech, with its delicate
inflections and musical intonations, disappeared, to be heard
nevermore. Such, in brief, is the story of the "Albigensian War," so
called on account of the heresy having been brought into Provence by
the Albigenses from Switzerland.

After a century and a half Normandy was restored. Its reabsorption
into France marked the parting of the ways in two kingdoms. _Kingship_
was reinforced in one, and _citizenship_ developed in the other. In
England the nobles and the people drew closer together, resolved to
defend themselves from a vicious king, and this determined effort to
curtail the royal prerogative produced the _Magna Charta_, which
forever secured the liberties of Englishmen (1215). In France, on the
contrary, the power was moved in one volume toward the king and
despotism. Both nations were in the hands of fate--a fate, too, which
was using unscrupulous men to accomplish its great purposes for each.

But however we may disparage Philip's heart and aims, no one can deny
the breadth and superiority of his mind and his statesmanship. He was
a Charlemagne made on a smaller scale, and without a conscience. Not
one of the successors of Clovis or of Pepin had so intelligently
grasped the sources of permanent growth in a nation. He may have been
false of tongue and unprincipled in deed, but he took the free cities
under his pers