By Abe Van Luik. (abevanluik@thoughtsandplaces.org)
NOTE: To get an unbeatable pictorial overview of the splendor of the Cathar castles and their remains, and, if you read French, to get a more definitive history, please click on this link: http://www.cathares.org/sommaire.html
PURPOSE:
In the electronic library of
CompuServe's Living History Forum there is a
"cathar.txt" file, by a Mr.
R. W. Odlin. In this library file, Mr. Odlin
suggests there is no evidence
for the existence of an organized religious
movement, known as the Cathars,
in the South of France. The following words
are from Mr. Odlin's file:
"COMMENT:
"It seems almost a shame to break
in on this elaborate reverie with the
observation that recent research
has disclosed not merely a faulty basis in
contemporary evidence for the
existence of Catharism in Southern France, but
literally no basis at all: not
one hint of this heresy besmirches any page
of the massive "Chanson de la
Croisade" (7), for example. Let the Cathars
have been as Manichaean as you
like (and the description of the heresy as
given above seems accurate enough
for most purposes), still it is time to
quit blaming on the Cathars
this great land-grab which historians like to
call a Crusade, for it cannot
be demonstrated that any Cathars were there.
". . . On page 237, Makin {in
"Provence and Pound" (Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California
Press, 1978)}writes of "... the two
authors of the "Chanson de la
Croisade Albigeoise," both professing
Catholics, one for, one against
the Crusade, but both unimpeachable
witnesses
yet not once in their
thousands of lines do they speak of such
theological monstrosities as
the Inquisition polemicists would have us
believe in. Thus we can say
that neither in the documented behaviour of the
people, nor in the reactions
of nobles, clergy, or balanced chroniclers, is
there any sign of heresies that
to the Middle Ages were immensely peculiar
and fascinating. ... It seems
more probable that the dominant ethic of the
south was the one that is visible
in its cultural products, troubadour
lyrics, and the Romanesque churches,
where physical beauty is a
manifestation of spiritual strength."
"NOTES:
"7. *La Chanson de la Croisade
contre les Albigeois,* par Guillaume de
Tudele, ed. & tr. by Paul
Meyer (Paris, 1875) a slightly preferable,
and probably more accessible,
edition is *La Chanson de la Croisade
Albigeoise,* ed. Eugene Martin-Chabot
(Paris: Editions "Les Belles Lettres,"
1957). This was the equivalent
of the *Century*'s enormous XIXth-century
*Battles and Leaders of the
Civil War,* in that it was written from both
points of view by authoritative
participants in the events described. Not a
trace of Catharism can be found
in either segment, in that written by the
Albigensian spokesman or in
that by the Catholic!" RESPONSE
These assertions are cited at
some length to show how serious this charge,
of their having been no Cathars
, really is. Mr. Odlin has researched this
subject quite carefully, and
he cites bona-fide historians in evidence. He had
me doubting the sources I was
reading, and spurred me on to read more.
And it is exactly the spur given
me by the "cathar.txt" file that has kept me
looking for more for several
years now. This year my search paid off. There
is something new under the English-speaking
sun!
In 1996, the "Chanson" was, for
the very first time, translated into English by
Janet Shirley. "The Song of
the Cathar Wars, A History of the Albigensian
Crusade" are the title and subtitle
of her book. She lists the two authors
as described above by Mr. Odlin
as "William of Tudela and an Anonymous
Successor." The 1996 publishers
are Scolar Press, Hants, England, and
Ashgate Publishing Company,
Brookfield, Vermont.
Shirley describes the two authors
as Odlin did, one for the crusade and one
against, and adds that both
were Catholic and against heresy. The second,
anonymous author takes off from
where the first left off, in the middle of a
discourse by King Peter of Aragon
that is reported in Laisse 131 by William
and continued in Laisse 132
by Anonymous! The text, a song to be sung to
tell a tragic story full of
blood and guts, heroism and villainy, is divided
into "Laisses," which to me
appear to be just long verses.
Since I hope that interested
persons will go and acquire this new resource
in English for themselves I
will keep citations from the volume to a bare
minimum. I will not cite from
Shirley the descriptions of the wars and
massacres that make the tale
gruesome yet interesting. I will only address
this one assertion by Makin,
as cited by Odlin: "not once in their thousands of
lines do they speak of such
theological monstrosities as the Inquisition
polemicists would have us believe
in. Thus we can say that neither in the
documented behaviour of the
people, nor in the reactions of nobles, clergy,
or balanced chroniclers, is
there any sign of heresies that to the Middle
Ages were immensely peculiar
and fascinating."
IMMENSELY PECULIAR AND FASCINATING HERESIES
First off an admission. Shirley's
translation nowhere uses the word Cathar.
The book's title is an interpretation,
not a translation. The actual title
in Shirley's book is simply
"The Song of William of Tudela." Others who
have published the song (see
the NOTES section cited above from Odlin's
CompuServe library file "cathar.txt"),
after translating the Provencal language
of the original into French,
have given it the title associating it with the
Albigensian Crusade: "La Chanson
de la croisade contre les Albigeoise," for
example.
So, do William of Tudela and
his Anonymous successor never mention peculiar
and fascinating heresies? They
do not, I'll admit, detail the beliefs of
the heretics. William, as he
begins his account, indicates he was composing
verse for an audience very familiar
with the heretics in question, and
simply says in Laisse 2 (Shirley,
pp. 2-3): "Of course you all know this
heresy - God send his curse
on it! - became so strong it gained control of
the whole of the Albigeois,
of the Carcasses and most of the Lauragais. All
the way from Beziers to Bordeaux
many, or indeed, most people believed in or
supported it. When the lord
pope and the other clergy saw this lunacy
spreading so much faster than
before and tightening its grip every day, each
of them in his own jurisdiction
sent out preachers. The Cistercian order led
the campaign and time and again
it sent out its own men. Next, the bishop of
Osma arranged a meeting between
himself and other legates with these Bulgars
at Carcassonne. This was very
well attended, and the king of Aragon and his
nobles were present. Once the
king had heard the speakers and discovered how
heretical they were, he withdrew,
and sent a letter about this to Rome in
Lombardy. God grant me his blessing,
what shall I say? They think more of a
rotten apple than of sermons,
and went on just the same for about five
years. These lost fools refused
to repent, so that many were killed, many
people perished, and still more
will die before the fighting ends. It cannot
be otherwise."
I cited this Laisse at some length
because I believe that in and of itself
it already disproves what Makin,
and for that matter Odlin, asserted: there
was indeed a powerful heresy
that had taken over the region around Albi,
Carcassone, and other places
in southern France. Its followers were labeled
"Bulgars" by William, indicating
they were thought, by the chronicler at
least, to have been followers
of the dualist heresy ascribed to the Cathars and
derisively associated with one
known to have spread from Bulgaria.
Dualists is also what their Inquisitorial
critics charged them to be.
"Bulgars" is a word used in
the text, the original, by a contemporary and reliable
witness. It is not an interpreter's
interpolation.
William indicated the heretics
were very resistant to conversion, and death
was the inevitable lot of the
unrepentant. In fact William explains in
Laisse 1 (Shirley P. 11) that
it was his own divination skills that warned
him to get out of the heretical
lands, because: "fire and devastation would
lay the whole region waste,
that the rich citizens would lose all the wealth
they had stored up, and the
knights would flee, sad and defeated, into exile
in other lands, all because
of the insane belief held in that country."
Laisse 3 and 4 (Shirley p. 12)
continue to lament the obstinacy and
stupidity of the heretics, who
were "wicked" and "misbelieving" and "fools"
who "paid no attention" to "and
despised everything" the Catholic preachers
said. They were fanatics, in
a word.
As in any crusade against non-Christian
unbelievers, sins were to be
forgiven of participants. William,
in Laisse 8 (Shirley p. 14) indicates
this provision was instrumental
in bringing many to the war against the
heretics: "Then, once they knew
that their sins would be forgiven, men took
the cross in France and all
over the kingdom. Never in my life have I seen
such a gathering as that one
they made against the heretics and
clog-wearers!"
(Shirley explains that the heretics
were the Cathars, the clog wearers
were the followers of Peter
Waldo of Lyons, who also resided in
this area, who sought poverty
and wore homemade sandals or clogs. They are
more commonly referred to as
Waldenses in English.)
Laisse 14 (Shirley p. 18) tells
of the mass destruction of heretics in the
course of the war: "This host
condemned many heretics to be burned and had
many fair women thrown into
the flames, for they refused to recant however
much they were begged to do
so." This is quite consistent with the
descriptive literature on the
Cathars. (The "host" referred to was the
crusade's forces and its leadership.)
At some point in time (Shirley
pp. 20-21) the town of Beziers was surrounded
and attacked. The townspeople
crowded into the church for refuge. All
townspeole, including all in
the church, were killed, Catholic and heretic
together. Shirley cites a report
claiming 20,000 died, and Williams blamed
the crusaders' kitchen boys
for burning the church and its occupants, not
the noble knights, and calls
it a terrible slaughter.
Carcassone was next, and the
Count of Toulouse appealed for aid from the
King of Aragon, Peter, and mentioned
the terrible slaughter at Beziers, to
which the king replied (Laisse
27, Shirley p. 24): "'In Jesus' name, baron,
you cannot blame me for that
since I told you, I ordered you to drive out
the heretics, as there are so
many people in this town who support this
insane belief."
In Laisse 60, the count of Toulouse,
Raymond, is given an opportunity to
save himself by surrendering
in terms that included the following (Shirley
p. 38): "This is what the document
said and how it began: that the count and
those who were with him must
keep the peace they must dismiss the
mercenaries that same night
or next morning must restore their rights to
the clergy, who should be supreme
in everything they might require the
count must expel all faithless
Jews from his jurisdiction within a year's
time he must hand over to the
abbot and his advisers all the heretical
believers they would point out,
for them do as they pleased with at
their absolute discretion."
The part that the good count objected to most
strenuously I do not cite here,
but is surely the part requiring him to go on
pilgrimage in the Holy land,
beyond Jordan, and stay there until Rome said
he could come home!
It is instructive to see how
William, who favored the crusade, dealt with a
nobleman he admired, but who
lost all his lands (Laisse 68, Shirley. P. 41):
"There was not a richer knight
in all the Toulousain nor the rest of the
county, nor a more generous
spender or of higher rank. Alas the day he met
the heretics and clog-wearers!
Never so far as I know has so great a lord
been hanged in all Christendom,
nor with so many knights hanged at his side.
More than eighty of them, there
were, so a clerk told me. As for the
townspeople, they collected
as many as four hundred of these in a meadow and
burned them. Beside this, they
threw Lady Girauda into a well and heaped
stones on top of her, which
was a shame and a sorrow, for no one in this
world, you may take my word
for it, ever left her presence without having
eaten. This was done on Holy
Cross day in May, in summer." William seems to
have known these fine people,
genuinely regrets their deaths, and blames the
heretics they tolerated in their
midst for their misfortune.
Skipping far ahead in the narrative
to Laisse 106 and 107 (Shirley p. 55)
there are two references to
the heretics in Puylaurence and Rabastens that
are instructive in terms of
showing towns under heretical control: "The men
of Puylaurens were in a state
of great dismay, for they had sworn oaths and
broken them. Immediately and
before any others did so, at least five hundred
of them went to Count Simon
at Lavaur and made their peace. They had also
been the first to renegue, so
obedient were they to that insane belief."
"The inhabitants of Rabastens,
entirely trusting in these wicked heretics
and their mad ideas, now renegued,
for they were sure the crusaders would
never reach them, and indeed,
thought they had been defeated. So thought all
those in the district who shared
the hopes of the men I have just been
telling you about."
I believe these citations are
sufficient to make the case that in the
accounts of the "balanced chroniclers"
there was indeed many a "sign of
heresies that to the Middle
Ages were immensely peculiar and fascinating."
Makin says these are balanced
chroniclers, but so far we have only cited
William, who was all in favor
of the crusade. Let us now move to the
Anonymous chronicler who hated
heresy but also hated the crusade.
At the Fourth Lateran Council
in Rome the Count of Foix explained himself to
the pope in these words (Laisse
143, Shirley pp. 74-75): ""My Lord," said
the count of Foix, my great
right, my true loyalty and my honest mind are
my defence. Let the law judge
me, for then I am safe, as I have never
befriended heretics, neither
the believers nor the clothed."
(Shirley in a note explains that
this is a reference to the two types of Cathars,
the believers, and the perfecti
who were uniformed in dark attire.)
The count continues his defense
against the recent refortification of
Montsegur and of his sister
being a successful heretic missionary,
by assuring the pope that he
has no responsibility for the heretics at Montsegur:
"As for the peak of Montsegur,
the law there is clear, for I have never for one
day been its overlord."
His sister being a heretic, a
successful missionary, and living in his domain
is also not his fault: "If my
sister has done wrong, I ought not to be destroyed for
her fault. And her right to
remain in the fief was laid down: before he died
the count my father declared
that if a child of his were suffering in any
place, that child should return
to the land where it was brought up and
should there he given whatever
was needed and be made welcome."
Serious accusations were made
against the murderous count Simon
de Montfort, so much so that
the pope declared he should not hold the
conquered territories in fief
(Laisse 149, Shirley p. 79): "'Master, said the
pope, what strongly outweighs
that consideration is the fact that he destroys
Catholics just as much as heretics.
Serious complaints and bitter
accusations reach me every month.
Good is being brought low and evil
exalted.' Men got to their feet
by twos and threes all over the court and
came forward to ask the pope:
'My lord, great pope, are you aware of the
facts? The count de Montfort
went to the Carcasses to destroy the wicked and
bring in the good, he drove
out the heretics, the mercenaries and Vaudois,
and brought in Catholics, Normans
and Frenchmen.'" After some more talk of
this nature the pope agreed
that Simon should hold the fief over all
conquered lands.
A few more citations should suffice
to show that the Anonymous chronicler
also recognized the role that
this great heresy played in this crusade
(Laisse 190, Shirley p. 136):
"They would set two sieges that was the
advice given by the barons and
accepted by the count and then the cardinal,
wisest of learned men, with
abbot, bishop, prior and legate would go into
every land and preach peace
and the expulsion of heretics and clog-wearers,
and in this way they would attract
crusaders to join them."
Finally this. The town of Marmande
was sacked and its inhabitants, men,
women and little children, massacred,
by anonymous crusading "men" while
their leaders were arguing whether
or not the nobleman controlling the town
was a heretic deserving death.
Shirley suggests this was a massacre
"inspired by a loathing of heresy"
(Laisse 212, Shirley pp. 188-189).
The defense of the nobleman again
points to the centrality of hereticism, or
its toleration, as a cause for
military action: "But very promptly the
archbishop of Auch said: By
God, good my lord king, if we are to go by the
law, neither the count nor his
hold should suffer death or injury, for he is
no heretic, no traitor or miscreant.
No, he followed the cross and upheld
his rights. He has behaved badly
towards the Church, but he is not a heretic
nor accused of wrong beliefs,
and it is the Church's duty to receive a
defeated sinner in such a way
that his soul is not lost nor himself harmed."
He was thus saved and traded
for a crusader-noble held captive elsewhere.
CONCLUSION
Although Cathars are nowhere
mentioned by name, the whole thrust of this
work was to document a remarkably
bloody war on a land heavily supportive
of, if not controlled by, heretics.
The heretics were not described in
terms of belief because, as
the first chronicler said to his audience: "Of
course you all know how this
heresy -God send his curse on it!- became so
strong that it gained control
of the whole of the Albigeois, of the
Carcasses, and most of the Lauragais."
The heretics' fanaticism was
noted again and again, either in terms of their
rejecting Catholic preaching
or maintaining their beliefs as they were about
to be burnt. They were sometimes
mentioned together with Jews, sometimes
with clog-wearing Waldensians,
but were clearly set apart from these other
'unbelievers' or heretics in
the narratives of both William and the Anonymous
chronicler.
Clearly, I believe, in this song
there are many signs "of heresies that to the
Middle Ages were immensely peculiar
and fascinating." It is now my firm belief
that the Cathars were real!