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Cathar (Albigensian) & Baltic Crusades 1208 - 1300
Although Muslims obviously suffered at the hands of good Christians throughout the Middle Ages, it should not be forgotten that pagans and other Christians suffered just as much. Augustine's exhortation to compel entry into the church was used with great zeal when church leaders dealt with Christians who dared to follow a different sort of religious path. Pagans in the north were targeted for forced conversion.

1208 - 1229	A Crusade against the Cathars (Albigenses) in southern France is launched by Pope lnnocent III.
1208	Albert, the third Bishop of Buxtehude (Uexküll), makes strong advances in the Baltic Crusade by forcibly converting the Kur and Lett peoples to Christianity. Albert and the Swordbrothers make great use of the fact that most of the tribes in the region are not on good terms with each other. The most effective means for advancing Christianity is to conquer one group, which would not be aided by anyone else, and then convince them to launch an attack on a neighbor whom they already disliked. In this manner one tribe after another was absorbed into Christendom.
January 1208	Pierre de Castelnau, a papal legate in southern France who had been making some progress in converting Cathar heretics (also known as Albigensians) to orthodox Catholicism, is murdered. This sparks an outcry and, later this same year, a violent Crusade against the Cathar and the Waldenses in Southern France called by Pope Innocent III.
June 1209	Raymond VI of Toulouse agrees to the demands of Pope Innocent III that he act against the Cathars after finding that more than 10,000 Crusaders had gathered at Lyon to lay waste to Cathar areas in southern France.
July 22, 1209	The city of Beziers in southern France is sacked and its population of around 10,000 massacred by the Abbot of Citeaux during the Crusade against the Cathars. Caesar of Heisterbach, the papal representative, records Abbot Arnaud-Amaury saying "Caedite eos! Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius" (Latin for "Slay them all! God will know his own.")
August 01, 1209	Crusaders arrive at the French town of Carcassonne, controlled by Raymond-Roger de Trencavel and believed to be a Cathar stronghold.
August 07, 1209	During the Crusader siege of Carcassonne the city's access to water is cut off. Raymond-Roger de Trencavel attempts to negotiate but is taken prisoner while under a flag of truce.
August 15, 1209	The city of Carcassonne surrenders to the Crusaders. Unlike at Beziers the citizens are not killed but they are all forced to leave. Raymond-Roger de Trencavel is executed and Simon de Montfort, commander of the Crusader army, assumes control of the city and surrounding region for himself.
December 1209	Crusaders attack the castle of Cabaret, near the French town of Lastours. Pierre-Roger de Cabarat manages to hold out, however.
March 1210	Crusaders in southern France lay siege to Bram and, after capturing it, kill the Cathars living there.
July 22, 1210	Citizens of the fortified town of Minerve in southern France surrender to the Crusaders seeking out Cathars. Those who were willing to convert were allowed to do so but the 140 who refused were burned at the stake.
August 1210	Crusaders in southern France trying to root out the Cathar movement lay siege to the town of Termes.
December 1210	The town of Termes falls to the Crusaders after a siege that had lasted since August.
1211	Crusading Bishop Albert lays the cornerstone for Riga's Dome Cathedral. By this point much of modern-day Latvia had been converted to Christianity and German merchants are settling throughout the region.
March 1211	Crusaders return to the castle of Cabaret and this time Pierre-Roger de Cabarat surrenders.
May 1211	Crusaders capture the castle of Aimery de Montréal, hanging several knights and burning several hundred Cathars who had fought there.
June 1211	Crusaders attempt to besiege the city of Toulouse, but they are short of supplies and must withdraw.
September 1211	Raymond of Toulouse leads an attack Simon de Monfort at Castelnaudary. Monfort is able to escape, but Castelnaudary falls to the Cathars and Raymond goes on to liberate over thirty Cathar towns in the province of Toulouse before his counter-Crusade peters out at Lastours.
1212	The Children's Crusade is supposedly launched by the 12-year old French boy Stephen de Cloyes. More than 50,000 children are thought to have been sold into slavery, but many historians disbelieve that this Crusade ever occurred.
September 12, 1213	Battle of Muret: Peter II of Aragon, I of Catalonia comes to the aid of the Cathars in Toulouse and Languedoc who are being harassed by Crusaders. Peter is killed and his army flees.
1214	Raymond of Toulouse is forced to flee to England.
November 1214	Simon de Montfort entered Périgord captures the Cathar castles of Domme and Montfort.
1215	The Magna Carta is signed and English barons forced King John to agree to a statement of their rights.
1215 - 1221	The Fifth Crusade is launched as an attack on Egypt but it ultimately ends in failure.
December 14, 1215	The Fourth Lateran Council accepts the Constitution Ad Liberandum in order to help fund the Fifth Crusade.
April 1216	Raymond of Toulouse and his son, both Cathar heretics, return to southern France, raise a large force from the various Cathar towns that had been captured by the Crusaders, and begin to strike back.
1217	The Swordbrothers, a Christian army first organized in 1202, invades the region which today makes up Estonia for the purpose of wiping out local pagan beliefs.
September 1217	Raymond of Toulouse recaptures the city of Toulouse from the Crusaders.
December 1217	Armies of the Fifth Crusade attack Mount Tabor.
1218	Newgate Prison, London's infamous debtor prison, is completed.
1218	The Swordbrothers begin their conquest of Estonia.
1219	Pope Honorius III sends Cardinal Pelagius of Albano to the Holy Land to lead the Fifth Crusade.
June 03, 1219	The French town of Marmande falls to the Crusaders.
1220	During the Baltic Crusade, Conrad of Masovia drives the pagan Prussians out of Chelmno Land.
November 22, 1220	Pope Honorius III crowns Holy Roman Emperor Frederick in the expectation that Frederick would support the Church and participate in the Fifth Crusade.
1222	Raymond of Toulouse, defender of the Cathars against the Crusaders, dies and his son Raymond takes over for him.
1223	Pagans from the island of Saaremaa revolt against new Christian leaders, recapturing most of Estonia. They would lose it all again by the next year.
1224	Amaury de Montfort, leader of the Crusade against the Cathars, flees Carcassonne. The son of Raymond-Roger de Trencaval returns from exile and reclaims the area.
November 1225	Raymond, son of Raymond of Toulouse, is excommunicated.
June 1226	The Crusade against Cathars in southern France is renewed.
1227	Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas is born. Aquinas codified Catholic theology in works like Summa Theologica, marking the high point of the medieval scholastic movement.