[jwally]

When the crusader army reached Béziers, they demanded that all heretics be handed over. The townspeople refused, and the crusaders stormed the city. Once inside, they couldn’t tell Catholics from Cathars—everyone spoke the same language and lived side by side.

That’s when the Cistercian legate Arnaud Amalric supposedly gave his infamous order:

“Caedite eos; Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.” “Kill them all; for the Lord knows those that are His.”

It’s a paraphrase of 2 Timothy 2:19 (“The Lord knoweth them that are his”).

The crusaders slaughtered virtually the entire population—estimated between 10,000 – 20,000 people—before burning the city.

ps I have an irrational fear of wasps