ABSTRACT
The distinction between a troubadour, known for composing only for love of his lady, and a jongleur, accused of being inspired purely by a taste for cash, was certainly not unknown in Occitan lands in the thirteenth century, and Sordel himself must have experienced it at the court of Provence. To the count of Foix, who shows that by agreeing to hand over their lands to the Church the Toulousains have only brought upon themselves death and suffering from the impositions of Montfort, the bishop replies by evoking the sufferings of the martyred crusaders. Just as the brutality of Fulk’s intervention gives the impression of being out of place, so his evocation of what he considers to be the martyrs of Montgey, through his use of a sort of picturesque horror, seems rather inappropriate to the dignity of a debate where he seems to show little concern to face up to his opponents on their own ground.
