The cathars and the Albigensian Crusade
The Cathars were a religious group who appeared in Europe in the eleventh century, their origins
something of a mystery though there is reason to believe their ideas came from Persia by way of the
Byzantine Empire, the Balkans and Northern Italy. Records from the Roman Catholic Church mention them
under various names and in various places. Catholic theologians debated with themselves for centuries
whether Cathars were Christian heretics or whether they were not Christians at all. The question is
apparently still open. Roman Catholics still refer to Cathar belief as "the Great Heresy" though the
current official Catholic position is that Catharism is not Christian at all.
Located in the heart of France's Languedoc
regions, 80 km south-west of Carcassonne, Montségur became the headquarters of the Cathar community
in the Languedoc, and a refugee centre for "faidits" - outlaws who had been stripped of their lands
and goods by the Roman Church. The castle was besieged in 1443 by a huge army of crusaders. For months
the siege was unsuccessful but shortly before Christmas a group of Basque mercenaries scaled a
seemingly impossible sheer cliff face, and overran a forward position. Eventually the defenders - out
of food and water - negotiated a truce of two weeks, after which the Parfaits would have to abjure
their faith or burn alive. On March 16th, 1244, more then 200 people were burned alive (the French
have a word for the act of burning people alive - they call it a Bûché).
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Cathars believed in two principles, a good creator god and his evil adversary (much like God and
Satan of mainstream Christianity). Cathars called themselves Christians; their neighbours distinguished
them as "Good Christians". The Catholic Church called them Cathars or Albigenses. Cathars maintained a
Church hierarchy and practiced a range of ceremonies, but rejected any idea of priesthood or the use
of church buildings. They divided into ordinary believers who led ordinary medieval lives and an
inner Elect of Parfaits (men) and Parfaites (women) who led extremely ascetic lives yet still worked
for their living - generally in itinerant manual trades like weaving. Cathars believed in reincarnation
and refused to eat meat or other animal products. They were strict about biblical injunctions -
notably those about living in poverty, not telling lies, not killing and not swearing oaths.
In the Languedoc, famous at the time for its high culture, tolerance and liberalism, the Cathar
religion took root and gained more and more adherents during the twelfth century. By the early
thirteenth century Catharism was probably the majority religion in the area, supported by the nobility
as well as the common people. This was yet another annoyance to the Roman Church which considered the
feudal system to be divinely ordained as the natural order (Cathars disliked it because it depended
on oath taking). In open debates with leading Catholic theologians Cathars seem invariably to have
come out on top. This was embarrassing for the Roman Church, not least because they had fielded the
best professional preachers in Europe against what they saw as a collection of uneducated weavers
and other manual workers. Worse still a number of Catholic priests had become Cathar adherents
(Catharism was a religion that seems to have appealed especially to the theologically literate and
whole Cathedral chapters are known to have defected, as they did for example at Orleans). Worse, the
Catholic Church was held up to public ridicule (some of the richest men in Christendom, bejeweled,
dressed in finery, and preaching poverty, provided an irresistible target even to fellow Catholics).
Worst yet, Cathars in the Languedoc refused to pay tithes to the Catholic Church.
The Cathar view of the Catholic Church was as bleak as the Catholic Church's view of the Cathar
Church. On the Cathar side it manifested itself in ridiculing Catholic doctrine and practices, and
characterising the Catholic Church as the "Church of Wolves". The Catholics accused Cathars of heresy
or apostasy and said they belonged to the "Synagogue of Satan". The Catholic side created some
striking propaganda. When the propaganda proved only partly successful, there was only one option
left - a crusade - the Albigensian Crusade.
The Pope, Innocent III, called a formal Crusade against the Cathars of the Languedoc, appointing
a series of military leaders to head his Holy Army. The first was a Cistercian abbot (Arnaud Amaury)
now best remembered for his command at Béziers "Kill them all. God will know his own". The second was
Simon de Montfort now remembered as the father of another Simon de Montfort, a prominent
figure in English parliamentary history. The war against the Cathars of the Languedoc continued for
two generations. In the later phases the Kings of France would take over as leaders of the crusade,
which thus became a Royal Crusade.
From 1208, a war of terror was waged against the indigenous population and their rulers: Raymond
VI of Toulouse, Raymond-Roger Trencavel, Raymond Roger of Foix in the first generation and Raymond
VII of Toulouse, Raymond Trencavel II, and Roger Bernard II of Foix in the second generation. During
this period an estimated 500,000 Languedoc men women and children were massacred - Catholics as well
as Cathars. The Counts of Toulouse and their allies were dispossessed and humiliated, and their lands
annexed to France. Educated and tolerant Languedoc rulers were replaced by relative barbarians;
Dominic Guzmán (later Saint Dominic) founded the Dominican Order and soon afterwards the Inquisition,
manned by his Dominicans, was established explicitly to wipe out the last vestiges of resistance.
Lay learning was discouraged and the reading of the bible became a capital crime. Tithes were
enforced. The Languedoc started its long economic decline to become the poorest region in France;
and the language of the area, Occitan, began its descent from the foremost literary language in
Europe to a regional dialect, now disparaged as a patois.
At the end of the extermination of the Cathars, the Roman Church had convincing proof that a
sustained campaign of genocide can work. It also had the precedent of an internal Crusade within
Christendom, and the machinery of the first modern police state that could be wheeled out for the
Spanish Inquisition, and again for later Inquisitions and genocides.
The crusade against the Cathars of the Languedoc has been described as one of the greatest
disasters ever to befall Europe. Catharism is often said to have been completely eradicated by the
end of the fourteenth century. Yet there are more than a few vestiges even today, apart from the
enduring memory of Cathar martyrdom and the ruins of the famous "Cathar castles", including the
Château of Montségur. There are even Cathars alive today, or at least people claiming to be modern
Cathars. An increasing number of historians and other academics engaged in serious Cathar studies.
Interestingly, to date, the deeper they have dug, the more they have vindicated Cathar claims to
represent a survival of the Earliest Christian Church.
Source: www.languedoc-france.info