Time, 1961: Massacre of the Pure

Time Magazine
Friday, Apr. 28, 1961
Massacre of the Pure

"These heretics are worse than the Saracens!" exclaimed Pope Innocent III, and on March 10, 1208, he proclaimed a crusade against a sect in southern France that became one of the bloodiest blots in European history.

The heretics called Cathari (from the Greek word for pure), or Albigenses, from the town of Albi, one of their centers in Languedoc, were stamped out in 35 ruthless years of fire and sword. But as the centuries rolled on, they have had a measure of revenge against the Roman Catholic Church. The hatred generated by the crusade prepared the way for Protestantism. And in modern France, where popular apostasy from Catholicism is today wider and deeper than anything Pope Innocent could have imagined, the ancient heresy of Catharism is enjoying a remarkable revival of interest.

The long-lived tradition of anticlericalism in southern France, which recruited the Huguenots in the 16th century and fueled Communism in the 20th, is finding a new outlet in a spreading bush fire of enthusiasm for the vanished sect whose 750-year-old lost cause against the church gave anticlericalism its biggest beachhead in France. Some 30 books have been published during the last 15 years about their beliefs and practices and their slaughterous persecution—most of them highly favorable to the heretics and critical of the church. Several plays have been written about them, and literary reviews have published long articles. Hundreds of weekenders are climbing the 4,000-ft. rock atop which stands Montségur, the holy citadel of Catharism, where 300 soldiers and 200 unarmed, pacifist Cathari stood off an army of 10,000 for ten months before being burned at one huge stake for their "pure Christian" beliefs.

How to Be Perfect.
Catharism was not an isolated phenomenon. It was part of an ancient heresy that flowed like an underground stream beneath the surface of Christianity and burst forth in many forms during the church's first 1,000-odd years. Gnosticism, Manichaeanism, Paulicianism, Bogomilism and the Albigenses all had basic characteristics in common: 1) rejection of the world of matter as a trap imprisoning the divine "spark," 2) the concept of the Saviour as a heavenly being merely masquerading as human to bring salvation to 3) the elect, who often have to conceal themselves from the world, and who are set apart by 4) their special knowledge and personal purity (sexual intercourse is usually forbidden as serving the ends of the evil creator-god).

Thanks to recent research, an increasing amount is known about Catharism. It began to spread through southern France and northern Italy in the 11th century; as early as 1022 in Orléans, 13 Cathari (ten of them canons of the church) were condemned to the stake. The heresy was aided by the corruption of the clergy of the time—against whose wenching and venality the puritanism of the "Pure'' was an attractive contrast. The inner circle of Cathari were the "perfect," who had received the "consolation"—a rite performed by another "perfect" in the laying on of hands and the placing of the Gospel of John on the head of the candidate. The "perfect" eschewed sexual intercourse, taking oaths, practicing war, owning property, eating meat or dairy products (since they are the products of the act of reproduction). Some of them carried their asceticism as far as the endura—suicide by self-starvation. Most of the Cathari, however, remained among the "believers," free to live ordinary lives in the world in the hope of salvation without the rigor of living as a "perfect."

The Cathari built no churches; they worshiped in private houses without the sacraments (being material, they were evil) or the cross (because Christ had no real body and died no real death). They read the Scriptures—especially the Gospel of John—listened to a sermon, said the Lord's Prayer (in native Languedoc dialect rather than Latin) and shared a common meal. The clergy wore black robes—until Pope Innocent's crusade began.

In July 1209, an army of crusaders marched down from northern France into Languedoc and besieged the city of éeziers. When the city fathers refused to hand over 222 Cathari heretics, the crusaders broke in and massacred every man, woman and child—priests included—of Béziers' 20,000 inhabitants. Before the massacre one of the crusaders is said to have asked his leader, Abbe Arnaud Amalric, head of the Cistercian monastic order, how to distinguish between the heretics and the faithful. "Kill them all," was the abbot's alleged reply. "God will recognize his own!" From then on, the crusade became a war without mercy, in which almost any southern Frenchman was assumed to be a heretic. Historians estimate the total number of casualties at 1,000,000.

A Period of Darkness.
The enthusiasm of these new-style heretic hunters is being fanned by a number of antiquarians. Dean of them all is tall, gaunt Déodat Roche, 79, a former magistrate of Arques, whose lifelong dedication to spreading the Cathar gospel, organizing pilgrimages to Montségur, and following the strict vegetarian regimen of his heretic ancestors has earned him the nickname "the Cathar Bishop." More active is Sociology Professor René Nelli of the University of Toulouse ("the vicar of Catharism"), who lectures on the subject all over France and has been commissioned by the French government to collect relics and documents for a Cathar museum-in the fortified city of Carcassonne.

Neo-Cathar Nelli explains the growing interest in the medieval heresy: "First the continued retreat of Roman Catholicism. Rome fails to answer people's questions. Secondly, the crusade's sites are admittedly picturesque, and the drama has an appealing epic character. Finally, we are living in a period of darkness, anguish, desperateness, wars, massacres, torture, atomic bombs. Isn't science itself satanic? People will talk about Catharism more and more unless we enter a period of 50 years of peace and prosperity. And that isn't likely."

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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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