Who were the Cathars?

The catholic church had many enemies in medieval Europe, but one of the greatest challenges to its power and authority came not from over-mighty kings, but from heretics. One particular group, a sect of dualists who rejected the old testament, the incarnation of Christ, and the trinity, presented a very real threat to Catholic orthodoxy – the Cathars.

These Cathars, or ‘Good Christians’ as they called themselves, spread rapidly throughout the south of France in the 12th Century, quickly becoming an important part of the social fabric of the Languedoc. When the Papacy, led by Pope Innocent III, was finally roused to action, it unleashed a tidal wave of persecution and violence which permanently scarred this region of France, leading to the destruction of vast numbers of villages, towns and castles, and the deaths of thousands upon thousands of Cathar faithful.

The tale of the Cathars is a tragic one, spanning decades of warfare, intrigue and bloodshed. Today we will attempt to answer the question: who were the Cathars?

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Music:
Blank Light - Adi Goldstein
Europa - Tecnosine
Who Listens to Trees Anyway - Ben McElroy
Echoes - Scott Buckley
Way, Way Down There - John Hayes
Uprising - Scott Buckley

Sources:

"The Cathars." In Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe, edited by Edward Peters, 98-114. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980.

Hill, Derek. Inquisition in the Fourteenth Century: The Manuals of Bernard Gui and Nicholas Eymerich. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1967.

Martin, Sean. A Short History of the Cathars. London: Pocket Essentials, 2012.

Peter of Les Vaux-de-Cernay. The History of the Albigensian Crusade: Peter of Les Vaux-de-Cernay's Historia Albigensis. Translated by W. A. Sibly and M. D. Sibly. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1998.

Lambert, Malcolm. Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation. 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002.

Johnston, William, ed. Encyclopedia of Monasticism. 2 vols. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000.

O'Shea, Andrew Philip. The Lost Teachings of the Cathars: Their Beliefs and Practices. Oxford: Mandrake, 2006.

All materials are used under fair use for education and commentary.

0:00 - Intro
2:18 - Origins
6:19 - Etymology
7:28 - Cathar Belief
14:18 - Organisation
19:55 - Social Life and Society
22:44 - Persecution
28:02 - The Albigensian Crusade
34:25 - The End of the Cathars
32:57 - Decline and Fall