The White Brotherhood (french: Fraternité Blanche) was an urban society (or

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

) of

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

established in 1211 during the episcopate of

Folquet de Marselha Folquet de Marselha, alternatively Folquet de Marseille, Foulques de Toulouse, Fulk of Toulouse (c. 1150 – 25 December 1231) came from a Genoese merchant family who lived in Marseille. He is known as a trobadour, and then as a fiercely anti- ...

, so-called from its members' habit of wearing white crosses on their chests. The society, called a "pious institution" by William of Puylaurens, was militant towards

usurer Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is c ...

s (

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

) and

Cathars Catharism (; from the grc, καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. Fol ...

, robbing them and destroying their homes. Most of the Whites came from the city proper. A

Black Brotherhood The Black Brotherhood was an urban society (or militia) established in Toulouse in 1211 in response to the White Brotherhood led by the bishop Folquet de Marselha. The Blacks opposed the Albigensian Crusade and supported the Count of Toulouse, Ray ...

, so-called in opposition to the White, was soon formed and the two factions went to war in the streets of Toulouse. According to Puylaurens:

Daily the two parties would clash, banners flying, bristling with weapons, even with cavalry in evidence. Through the agency of His servant the bishop, Our Lord came to bring them, not a bad peace but a good war.

From the White Brotherhood Folquet selected 500 men-at-arms and sent them to aid the

Albigensian Crusade The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade (; 1209–1229) was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crown ...

in besieging Lavaur. The bishop even composed pro-Crusade ''

sirventes The ''sirventes'' or ''serventes'' (), sometimes translated as "service song", was a genre of Old Occitan lyric poetry practiced by the troubadours. The name comes from ''sirvent'' ('serviceman'), from whose perspective the song is allegedly wr ...

'' for the troops to sing. Count Raymond VII, however, forbade the citizens to go and tried to force Folquet from the city. The White Brotherhood did go, however, and the bishop eventually left as well, to join the siege at Lavaur. The White Brotherhood gained notoriety among the opponents of the Crusade. The

troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...

Gavaudan GavaudanHis Occitan name is also found as ''Gavaudas'' in the accusative and, by extension, ''Gavauda'' in the nominative. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French scholarship used to call him ''le Vieux'' (the Old), but there is no basis f ...

wrote the song ''A la plus longa nuech de l'an'' in which he criticises the "foolish white people", almost certainly a reference to the Whites of Toulouse.Kastner, 149.

Sources

*Kastner, Leo E
"Gavaudan's Crusade Song. (Bartsch, ''Grundriss'', 174, 10)."
''The Modern Language Review'', 26:2 (Apr., 1931), pp. 142–150. * Oldenbourg, Zoe. ''Massacre at Montsegur: A History of the Albigensian Crusade''. Sterling Publishing Company, 2006. .

Notes

{{reflist History of Toulouse 1211 establishments in Europe 1210s establishments in France Albigensian Crusade Antisemitism in France