Pope Innocent III
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Pope Innocent III was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 until his death in 1216.
Detail of a fresco at the cloister Sacro Speco, c. 1219
Bulla of Innocent III
Mosaic of Innocent III, c. 1205–1212
Innocent III launched the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars.
Albigensian Crusade
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The Albigensian Crusade, also known as the Cathar Crusade, was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, what is now southern France. The
Pope Innocent III
…directing crusades against Muslim Iberia and the Holy Land as well as the Livonian Crusade against the Baltic and Finnic pagans of Livonia and the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in southern France. He organized the Fourth Crusade of 1202–1204, which ended in the sack of Constantinople. Although the attack…
Massacre against the Albigensians by the Crusaders
This Pedro Berruguete work of the 15th century depicts a story of Saint Dominic and the Albigensians, in which the texts of each were cast into a fire, but only Saint Dominic's proved miraculously resistant to the flames.
Carcassonne with the Aude river in the foreground
Cathars being expelled from Carcassonne in 1209