Books on Cathars and the Cathar Wars

from the site: http://www.renneslechateaubooks.info/languedoccathar/

Books on Cathars and the Cathar Wars

The following are books in English dealing with the Cathars, the so-called Cathar heresy, and the Crusade against the Cathars of the Languedoc.

These are all books worth reading, the modern ones selected for their objectivity and historical accuracy; the medieval reprints and translations purely for their historical interest. The star rating represents the webmaster's personal view.

Massacre at Montsegur: a history of the Albigensian Crusade
Zoe Oldenburg

Highly recommended. Not specifically about Montsegur but rather about the history of the Cathars in the Languedoc. Excellent introductory text.

The Original version is in French, but the English version is well translated so you'd never guess.
Zoe Oldenburg was originally a novelist, but this is a sound work of nonfiction (and built her an instant reputation as an historian).




The Cathars in The Languedoc
Malcolm Barber

An excellent book, but probably for academics and those who already know something about the Cathars.

Covers the area well, with interesting information on Catharism in Italy, the larger religious context, and modern Catharism. It traces the origins and spread of dualist ideas, assesses their attraction, and describes the reaction of the ecclesiastical and lay authorities in the form of preaching campaigns, crusades, and inquisitorial investigations.

A fascinating account of the development of religious belief and attempts to suppress it, touching on the nature of evil, the ethics of warfare, and the use made of history by later generations. The book will appeal to those interested in medieval perceptions of the world, the Crusades and the Inquisition.

Malcolm Barber is Professor of History at the University of Reading. He is the author of two books on the Templars, The Trial of the Templars (1978) and The New Knighthood (1994) (Both also highly recommended).

Paperback: 256 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.75 x 9.00 x 6.75 ; The book is illustratedPublisher: Pearson Longman; (July 27, 2000); ISBN: 0582256615




The Cathars
Malcolm Lambert

Another excellent text which traces the origins and spread of Dualist ideas, assesses their attraction, and describes the reaction of the ecclesiastical and lay authorities in the form of preaching campaigns, intellectual refutation, crusade, and inquisitorial investigations.

Though richly illustrated, this is for the enthusiast rather than the general reader. The author takes a chronological and regional approach (covering doctrinal material as the need arises). He covers heresy in Western Europe before the eleventh century and the Bogomils and early appearances of Catharism in the Rhineland. He goes on to the rise of Catharism in the Languedoc and the Roman Catholic Church's response to it (Innocent III, the crusade, and the Inquisition).

The book extends to the revival of Catharism around the beginning of the fourteenth century, and also deals with Italian Catharism, and the fate of the parent Bosnian Church.

Lambert notes that in Italy, unlike the Languedoc, conflicts over doctrine split Cathars into separate camps, and their survival for so long was largely attributable to the unwillingness of independent city-states to grant church authorities the powers needed to exterminate what the Roman Church saw as heresy.

Malcolm Lambert was a Reader in Medieval History at the University of Bristol in the U.K. He retired in 1991 but continues to write excellent history.




The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Death of the Medieval Cathars
Stephen O'Shea

This account of tale of the Cathars of the Languedoc and their destruction is sympathetic, evocative and sometimes witty.

Catharism is presented as "a pacifist brand of Christianity embracing tolerance and poverty". Rejecting the authority of the Church, and claiming a series of contrary beliefs, it was considered "perfect heresy" ie complete and utter heresy.

Nobles, monks, popes and kings star in this story of the "abattoir Christianity" of conflict encompassing religious and secular motivation over decades. The book's recreations of of siege warfare are particularly good. Operational methods of the Inquisition are clearly explained.

This is an accessible text for non-specialists, but it is sound history, drawing on modern scholarship and providing good notes.

Stephen O'Shea is a Canadian historian, who was inspired to write this book after traveling in France.




Montaillou: village Occitan, 1294-1324
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie

A century after the Crusade against the Cathars, a local Catholic bishop discovered that that Cathars were still flourishing. He had a whole village arrested and interrogated in his role as Inquisitor. Unusually, he was actually interested in the truth and recorded a wealth of detail about his unfortunate victims. This Inquisitor, Jacques Fournier, was promoted from Bishop of Pamiers to Archbishop of Narbonne and later elected Pope. His records found their way into the Vatican archives, where they were studied in the twentieth century by the French historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie. Le Roy Ladurie has produced an astonishing, gripping, unique, work of history by collecting details about ordinary village life of a fourteenth century rural community.





The Albigensian Crusade
Jonathan Sumption

Excellent history, and a brave attempt at making the case for the behaviour Roman Church.
This book by the well know historian and English barrister takes a much more informed view of the international politics of the period than most other works available.





The Yellow Cross: The Story of the Last Cathars, 1290-1329
René Weis

A century or so after the start of the first Cathar wars there was a short lived resurgence of the Cathar faith in the areas around Foix. (Another aspect of this resurgence is related in Montaillou - see above). Weis's book is about this resurgence.

The yellow cross of the title is a reference to to the yellow crosses that Cathars were obliged to wear by the Inquisition as a mark of public penance - similar to the yellow badges that Jews were obliged to wear as a mark of infamy, and a contrast to the red crosses worn by heroic crusaders.

One of the saddest and most moving parts of the story is that concerning a man called Belibast, the last known parfait in the area. Having led a colourful life, and having failed to live up to the high standards expected of a parfait, he nevertheless opted to die a most appalling death at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church rather than recant his faith, and spent his last days on earth trying to reconvert the erstwhile friend who had betrayed him to the Inquisition.





The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade
Michael Costen

A good all round work on the subject, though some reviewers have criticised it for an alleged pro-Catholic bias in its presentation and selection of sources.





The Song of the Cathar Wars.
William of Tudela and an Anonymous Successor (J. Shirley, translator,)

A contemporary history of the Albigensian Crusade. This is a poem, originally written in Occitan and later translated into French. This version is the first translation into English of this key text.
This is a prime source of information about the First Cathar Crusade, the House of Toulouse, medieval warfare and early heraldry.

If you try to compare the English and French translations, beware that the French translations are rather free, while the English one tries hard to remain faithful to the original, while still retaining the rhyme scheme.





The History of the Albigensian Crusade / Histoire Albigeoise
Peter des Vaux de Carney (W.A. & M.D. Sibly, translators)

This is a contemporary account of the Cathar wars, written by a cleric sympathetic to the crusader cause. It is interesting as much as anything as a demonstration of how badly twisted the religious mind can become by unthinking adherence to the misconceptions that motivate it. As one reviewer put it "Reading his History of the Albigensian Crusade, was a revolting experience. Peter seems like the sort of man who could easily today have written justifications of Stalinist / Nazi mass murder."

There are several French translations.

The English translators' extensive footnotes convert this work from a piece of medieval bigotry into a superb historical resource.




Chasing the Heretics: A Modern Journey Through the Medieval Languedoc
Rion Klawinski





Montsegur and the Mystery of the Cathars
Jean Markale





Histoire des Cathares
Michel Roquebert & Catherine Bibolleet





Cathares
Yves Rouquette





Montségur, Les cendres de la liberté

Michel Roquebert




The Chronicle of William of Puylaurens
Author: W.A. Sibly




Cathar Castles, Fortresses of the albigensian Crusade 1209-1300
Marcus Cowper, illustrated by Peter Dennis

An invaluable little guide to the so-called Cathar Castles of the Languedoc. Recommended for anyone planning a visit to one or more of these ruined fortifications.

A great advantage is that booklet steers well clear of the usual inaccurate hysterical tourist guff. Cowper is a medieval historian with a good grip on the intricacies of medieval warfare and of events during the Wars against the Cathars.

Illustrations by Peter Dennis are also excellent. Historically accurate and useful as a field guide.




Power and Purity: Cathar Heresy in Medieval Italy
Carol Lansing

Catharism was popular throughout Occitania, including areas that we now regard as part of Italy as well as those we now regard as parts of France.

This book explores the place of cathar heresy in the life of the medieval Italian town of Orvieto, as well as Florence and Bologna. Based on archival research, it details the social makeup of the Cathar community and argues that the heresy was central to social and political changes of the 13th century.

According to this book, the late 13th-century repression of Catharism by a local inquisition was part of a redefinition of civic and ecclesiastical authority.

Power and Purity will appeal to historians of society and politics as well as religion and even "gender studies".

Light reading.

Carol Lansing is Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara.












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