Feudal anarchy, as well as being an factor leading to instability, lead to tolerance. The number of troubadours circulating is estimated at around 500 and these were always welcomed at the chateaux by the feudal lords for their entertainment. The feudal lords loved their pleasures perhaps with a greater passion than they had for the extension of their political powers. The troubadours were an indication of the unease felt by the people at the cost of feudality : the taxation, the oppression by the lords to take part in armed struggles. A form of democracy was developing in the larger towns such as Toulouse. The troubadours were singing poems against the rich feudal landowners : biting the hand that fed them. Pressure was building up for better equality, reform of the system. Part of this struggle was against the outward signs of wealth of representatives of the church and thus came into prominence the cathars.

The cathars brought back a belief in the duality of forces for good and of evil which had previously been enunciated by the manicheens. The physical world was evil and created by the devil and the spiritual world was good and created by god. This was a heresy for the church who became more and more preoccupied with the suppression of the cathars as they preached against the wealth of the church and were sympathetically received by the peoples of the south including many of the feudal lords. By the XII century, the church had taken up arms on two fronts. The first, pacific, was to lead to the creation of communities of wandering, begging monks who were to present a better image of the church to the people. Also, as part of the battle to win hearts and minds, schools for poor children were started in large towns. The university at Toulouse has its origins from the early part of this century.

The second front taken by the church when the pacific route of the battle of ideas failed to make adequate progress, was to finance the Albigensian crusades, an armed invasion from the north to retake control of the south. This was possible because the church's need to combat heresy coincided with the French king's need to re-exert control over the south and to unify France. The king, Philippe-Auguste, provided the army and the church, lead by the Pope Alexander III, financed the crusades.