Arnaud Amalric

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Arnaud Amalric, or Arnau Amalric, (d. 1225) was a Cistercian monk. He was abbot of Poblet from 1196 to 1198, then of Grandselve from 1198 to 1202^[1]. He later became the seventeenth abbot of Cîteaux.

In 1204 he was named a papal legate and inquisitor and was sent by Innocent III with Peter of Castelnau and Arnoul to attempt the conversion of the Albigensians. Failing in this, he distinguished himself by the zeal with which he incited men by his preaching to the crusade against these heretics.

According to the Cistercian writer Caesar of Heisterbach, one of the leaders of the Crusader army, at the siege of Béziers in 1209, when asked by a Crusader how to distinguish the Cathars from the Catholics, Arnaul Amalric answered: "Tuez-les tous; Dieu reconnaitra les siens." – "Kill them all; for the Lord knoweth them that are His."^[2]. On the other hand, the legate's own statement, in a letter to the Pope in August 1209 (col.139), states:

While discussions were still going on with the barons about the release of those in the city who were deemed to be Catholics, the servants and other persons of low rank and unarmed attacked the city without waiting for orders from their leaders. To our amazement, crying "to arms, to arms!", within the space of two or three hours they crossed the ditches and the walls and Béziers was taken. Our men spared no one, irrespective of rank, sex or age, and put to the sword almost 20,000 people. After this great slaughter the whole city was despoiled and burnt...

According to Moréri, Arnaud was named archbishop of Narbonne about 1212, after his return from an expedition into Spain to encourage the Christians against the Moors. He left an account of this expedition. His stirring spirit embroiled him with his sovereign, Simon de Montfort. In 1224, he presided in the council of Montpellier, assembled to consider the complaints of the Albigensians.^[3]