Cathar history, Cathar architecture

11th century records from the Roman Catholic Church described how Catholic theologians were debating amongst themselves whether Cathars were Christian heretics or whether they were not Christians at all.  As Dualists, Cathars believed in two principles, a good creator God and his evil adversary Satan. These Good Christians maintained a Church hierarchy and practised religious ceremonies, but rejected the idea of priesthood. Vegetarians, the Cathars led very ascetic lives, working for their living in itinerant manual trades like weaving. They were strict and literal about biblical injunctions.

In the Languedoc, known at the time for its high culture, tolerance and liberalism, the Cathar religion took root and bloomed during the C12th. By the early C13th Catharism was probably the majority religion in the area, supported by the nobility as well as commoners. This was yet another annoyance to the Roman Church which considered the feudal system to be divinely ordained as the Natural Order.

In open debates, the Cathars character­ised the Catholic Church as the Church of Wolves. On the other side, Catholics acc­us­ed Cathars of heresy and said they belonged to the Syn­agogue of Satan. The Cathars seemed to have come out on top and as a result, a number of theologic­al­ly literate Catholic priests become Cathar adherents. The Catholic Church and its richest bejewelled men were being ridiculed! Worst, Cathars declined to pay tithes to the Catholic Church.

As a result the Catholic side created striking propaganda and when the propaganda failed, there was only option left - the Albigensian Crusade. Pope Innocent III called a formal Crusade against the Cathars of the Languedoc, appointing a series of military leaders to head his Holy Army, including Simon de Monfort. This Languedoc Crusade continued for two generations. In time, the Kings of France took over as leaders of what had now become a "royal" crusade.
                                 

Chateau Comtal inside the medieval city of Carcassonne.

From 1208, a Catholic war of terror was waged against the indigenous popul­ation of the Languedoc and their rulers. During this period a half-million Languedoc citizens were massacred, Catholics as well as Cathars.  In August 1209 the crusading army of the Papal legate forced Cacassone’s citizens to surrender. The local viscount was imprisoned whilst negotiating his city's surrender and soon died in his own dungeon. Simon De Montfort was appointed the new (Catholic) viscount and promptly strengthened Carcassonne's fortifications. The Cathar inhabitants were not massacred but were forced to strip naked and were expelled from the city gates. Later captives were given the option either to accept Catholicism or be burned at the stake. Cathar scriptures were added to the flames, all their property was seized, and the city was left in a state of devastation.

Counts of Toulouse & their allies were dispossessed & humiliated, and their lands annexed. Cathar-free, there was no reason why Carcassonne should have not immed­iately submitted to the Kingdom of France; it did so in 1247.

Ed­ucated, tolerant Languedoc rulers had been replaced by relative bar­barians. Dominic Guzmán-St Dominic founded the Dominican Order - soon the In­­quisition, manned by his Dominicans, was established explicitly to wipe out the last vestiges of resist­ance. The culture of the trou­b­adours was lost as their cultured pat­rons were reduced to wandering refugees. Lay learning was discouraged and the reading of the bible became a capital crime. Tithes were enforced. The Languedoc declined to become the poorest region in France; and the local Occ­itan lang­uage, once the foremost literary language, became a regional dialect.

The Catholic military victors had strengthened the defences of the old Cathar walled cities like Carcassonne and Narbonne, and renovated most of the imposing strongholds that they had captured. They even built the massive fortified cathedral at Albi, as a high-powered statement of Catholic dominance in the area. Thus at the end of the extermination of the Cathars, the Roman Church had proof that a sustained campaign of genocide worked. It also had the precedent of an internal Crusade within Christendom, and the machin­ery that could be reconstructed for the later Spanish Inquisition.

Cathar castle, Beziers

Catharism was said to have been completely eradicated by the end of the C14th. Yet there are more than a few vestiges even today. The Cathars' fortified hilltops, castles, villages and towns remain as a stark reminder of the the area's hideous medieval history.There are historical tours of Cathar sites and also a flourishing amusement-based Cathar tourist industry in the Languedoc, and especially in the Aude département (see map). More and more memorials are springing up on the massacres sites eg Les Casses, Lavaur, Minerve and the hilltop Château of Montségur. There is also an increasing community of historians and other academics engaged in serious Cathar studies.

Carcassonne, a fortified settlement that existed on the hill since Roman times, was doing very well under the wealthy Trencavel family in the C12th but it did not became a truly famous city until the Albigensian Crusades. Since the city was once a splendid stronghold of the Cathars, it is now the historical centre of Cathar country. It is an outstanding example of a medieval fortified town, with its massive defences encircling the castle and associated buildings, its streets and its fine Gothic cathedral.

Modern visitors start their Carcassone tour at the citadel in the Château Comtal. There are guided tours of this château in the upper town which also take in sections of the walls and St-Nazaire basilica. It was not a coincidence that Languedoc-born Pope Urban V visited the site in 1096 and ordered the construction of the basilica. However the or­iginal Rom­anesque style was altered over the years; the best features today are its enormous Gothic rose windows and its Gothic gargoyles.

Aude is a department in Languedoc Roussillon in Sth France
Note proximity to the Mediterranean Sea and to Spain

The second place to visit would be The Mazamet Catharism Museum in the town of Mazamet, half way between Saissac and Lastours. Recently a project was launched to transform the Fuzier Home in Mazamet into a remembrance house for the historic heritage of the town. On the 1st floor is a permanent exhibition called “Occitan Catharism”. The Cathars, who had been forced to flee into remote areas, went to the Montagne Noire at the edge of the Aude Cathar Country. The Tarn side of this mountainous massif gave the refugees their place of refuge and resistance. Mazamet, the ancient fortified village perched on a rocky outcrop, thus served as a safe haven during the period of the Inquisition. It was also one of the places of residence of the Cathar Archbishop of the diocese of Albi in the C13th.

My third place would be Béziers. In 1210 a group of Cathars sought refuge in the village after the massacre at Béziers during the Albigensian Crusade. The attacking army besieged the village for six weeks. Event­ual­ly the commander of the 200 defenders, the viscount of the nearby town of Minerve, gave in and negot­iated a surrender which saved the villagers after the destruction of the town's main water supply. However 140 Cathars refused to give up their faith and were burned at the stake in 1210. Today a memorial at Minerve reminds visitors of those 140 Christians who were burned alive for religious heresy.

Many thanks to James McDonald, author of Cathars and Cathar Beliefs in the Languedoc and to About France.com