The Ruin of Raymond Determined

Narrator: Chris Genthree
 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 10
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The submission of Count Raymond to the papal terms of reconciliation appears to have been complete. He had surrendered his castles, had undergone the basest personal humiliation, and had accompanied the crusades, notwithstanding his bleeding shoulders, against his own kinsman Roger. Surely the church will be satisfied, express her approbation, and receive him back into her bosom. But, alas, it was just the opposite. True, the pope in the most treacherous manner professed to embrace him as his obedient son, absolved him from his alleged guilt as to the murder of Castelnau, and gave him a cloak and a ring. With these valuable presents the count returned to his own country, in the hope that the pope's concessions would be confirmed by his legates. But here, history has lifted the veil, and revealed the most deliberate and avowed treachery that ever blackened the policy of any ruler. In a letter written by this pontiff to his legates in Toulouse, he refers to the words of the apostle in justification of his deceitful conduct, "Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile." (2 Cor. 12:1616But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. (2 Corinthians 12:16).) Thus he writes, "We counsel you with the apostle Paul to employ guile with regard to this count; for in this case it ought to be called prudence. We must attack separately those who are separated from unity. Leave for a time this count of Toulouse, employing towards him a course of dissimulation, that the other heretics may be the more easily defeated, and that afterward we may crush him when he shall be left alone." The confiding but doomed count, as a matter of course, urged the fulfillment of the pope's decree. But the crafty legates, Theodosius and Arnold, who were in their master's secret, had other intentions. They contrived delays, made demands, until the count found his cast was hopeless in their hands. On being told that he had not cleared himself of the crimes of heresy and murder, and that they could not absolve him, he burst into tears; when the iron-hearted churchmen mocked his disappointment, quoting the text; "Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him" (Psa. 32:66For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. (Psalm 32:6)); and pronounced his excommunication afresh.