generally kept in check by the greater houses of the region. Two main factors were responsible for this. The first, the prevalence of the idea of a public law administered by the noble houses of each region rather than law private to each locality (as in parts of the north) contributed to the emergence of a sense of regional rather than local identity. The codification of laws, on the Roman model, such as the promulgation of the Usatches of Catalonia by the count of Barcelona in c. 1150, stood as a practical application of such theoretical claims. In addition, both the houses of Toulouse and Barcelona developed their own administrative structures particularly concerned with the collection of tax--another means of emphasizing the authority of the count. A second sphere of activity, which did more to enhance the reputation of the counts of both Barcelona and Toulouse than any improvement in the efficiency of their territorial administration could, was their involvement in both ecclesiastical reform and in the prosecution of the holy wars and crusades associated with it. Raymond IV of St Gilles, count of Toulouse, was one of the leaders of the First Crusade, having previously fought against the infidel in Spain, and his successors in the twelfth century took a similar interest in the affairs of the Holy Land. The counts of Barcelona and the Spanish kings took an active role in the Christian reconquest of Spain. They were not the only ones to benefit; lesser nobles joined eagerly in these enterprises, accepting not only the rewards in lands and booty which accrued to the victors, but by implication the claims to leadership of the great noble houses whose representatives led the expeditions. Coupled with their reputations as generous patrons of reformed churches and monasteries, the great lords of the south stood as the champions of an increasingly aggressive Latin Christianity.
The redistribution of political power affected only a small section of the powerful élites of the Mediterranean world, but throughout the Christian community as in the Muslim world,
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