470 ROCiKIt ΟΓ VENHOVKK. [A.D. Ι-ϋιϊ. with the count of Toulouse, to attend at a council, for which purpose he had been sent to that country, as the following narrative will show. The council therefore assembled at Bourges, at which Avere present the archbishops of Lyons, Iiheims, Rouen, Tours, Bourges, and Auxienne ; the archbishop of Bordeaux was at Rome, and the church of Narbonne was without one. About a hundred suffragans from the nine provinces assembled, together with abbats and priors, and proxies from each of the chapters, to hear the pope's message ; but as the archbishop of Lyons claimed supremacy over the archbishop of Sens, and the archbishop of Rouen over those of Bourges, Auxienne, and Narbonno, and their suffragans, fears were entertained of disagreement, therefore they did not sit as it were in council, but only as if in consultation. When they were all seated, and the pope's letters had been read, there came before them the count of Toulouse on the one part, and Simon de Montfort on the other, the latter of whom demanded the surrender to him of the lands of Raymond count of Toulouse, which lands the pope and Philip the French king had conferred on him and his father, and he produced the writings both of the pope and Philip concerning the said gift ; he, moreover, added that count Raymond bad been abjudicated at the general council at Rome, on account of heresy, at least of the greater part of the land which he now possesses. Count Raymond in reply set forth that he would do whatever he ought towards the French king and the Roman church to retain his inheritance. The adverse party then asked him to abide by the judgment of twelve peers of France, to which Raymond replied, " Let the king receive my homage, and then 1 shall be ready to undergo the trial, otherwise they will not perhaps recognize me for a peer." After much altercation on both sides, the legate ordered the archbishops and bishops then present, each of them to convoke his suffragans to a separate [dace, to deliberate on the aforesaid matter, and to deliver to him the result of their deliberations in writing; he then excommunicated all who should disclose his plans on this matter, saying that he wished to explain them to the pope, and to tell them to the French king himself.