Malcolm Barber's "The Albigensian Crusades: Wars Like Any Other?"

My next post will be on the moral dimensions of the Albigensian Crusade.  Historians debate the extent of the atrocities which occurred during the crusade, whether those atrocities were one-sided or committed by both parties, and whether they were justified by the standards of medieval warfare or by any special circumstances particular to the crusade. 

While I will focus on the treatment by historians of these seeming atrocities and historiographical efforts to emphasize or minimize them, it is always best to start with an examination of the primary sources and their descriptions of and reactions to the events in question.  An excellent starting point on this topic is Malcolm Barber's essay "The Albigensian Crusades: Wars Like Any Other?"  The essay is hosted on the tremendously useful deremilitari.org website.

http://deremilitari.org/2013/09/the-albigensian-crusades-wars-like-any-other/