Followers of a form of the Cathar heresy; they took their name from the town of Albi in Languedoc in southern France. There and in northern Italy the sect acquired immense popularity. The movement was condemned at the Council of Toulouse in 1119 and by the Third and Fourth Lateran councils in 1179 and 1215, which opposed it not only as heretical but because it threatened the family and the state. St Bernard and St Dominic were its vigorous opponents. Between 1209 and 1228 the wars known as the Albigensian Crusade were mounted, led principally by Simon de Montfort. By 1229 the heretics were largely crushed and the Treaty of Meaux delivered most of their territory to France.