A Cistercian in High Office
Little is known of Arnaud Amalric's birth or family; he may have come from Catalonia or Languedoc. He appears in the records as a Cistercian monk who rose quickly: abbot of Poblet in Catalonia from 1196, of Grandselve near Toulouse from 1198, and in 1202 abbot of Cîteaux itself, head of the whole Cistercian order, the white monks made famous by Bernard of Clairvaux.
In 1204 Innocent III named him papal legate, with two other Cistercians, Pierre de Castelnau and Raoul of Fontfroide, to win back the people of Languedoc from the Cathars and to force their lords to act. The legates preached, held public debates, and excommunicated reluctant nobles, with little success. In 1206 at Montpellier they met Bishop Diego of Osma and his canon Dominic, who urged them to give up their horses and retinues and preach barefoot and poor, as the Cathar teachers did. For a time some of them tried it.
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