The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Death of the Medieval Cathars

Chronicles the life & death of the Cathar movement, led by a group of heretical Christians whose brutal suppression by the Catholic Church unleashed the Inquisition.

Although its title and subject confound such a prospect, this broadly researched, well-crafted and extensive treatment of an extinct Christian heresy would make excellent beach reading. Investing his story with the pace and excitement of a novel, journalist and translator O'Shea skillfully brings to life the tale of the medieval Cathars. A group of Christian heretics living, predominantly, in southern France, the Cathars, also known as the Albigensians, claimed to be the true Christians. Members of a church that was characterized by a poor, ascetic clergy (known as the Perfect), they stood against the power, wealth and luxury of the clerics who owed their allegiance to the bishop of Rome. They adhered to a doctrine remarkably similar to that of the Christian Gnostics and challenged the authority of the Church, claiming Catholicism was a false religion; in return, they were exterminated by the Church in the first half of the 13th century in "a ferocious campaign of siege, battle, and bonfire." O'Shea (Back to the Front) suggests that the harsh reprisal against this alternative sect both enabled the expansion of the French monarchy into the formerly independent region of Languedoc and created the first modern police stateAthe Inquisition. Cogently, provocatively and precisely argued, this volume is a sound and engaging exposition of a pivotal episode in European history. 15 b&w illus. (Aug.)
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In 1209, Pope Innocent III launched a series of bloody crusades directed against the Cathars, a heretical sect of Christians based in the Languedoc region of southern France. Though a profoundly spiritual and peaceful group, the Cathars were singled out for extermination because many of their radical beliefs stood in direct contradiction to conventional Catholic doctrine. In addition to contending that Hell did not exist and that all the sacraments were unnecessary, they also advanced the revolutionary notion that women were equal to men. Supported by the feudal nobility, who felt threatened by the communal lifestyle of the Cathars, as well as by agents of the government eager to annex the heretofore independent Languedoc to the Kingdom of France, these thinly disguised religious crusades not only obliterated the Cathars but also ushered in the brutally repressive era of the Inquisition. A riveting chronicle of a shameful episode in medieval church history. Margaret Flanagan
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O'Shea (Back to the Front) chronicles the history of the medieval Cathars in what is probably the most user-friendly account to date. At times, the book reads like a historical novel, as characters like Simon of Montfort, Raymond of Toulouse, and Peter of Aragon assume real-life dimensions in their ongoing tug-of-war for control in southwestern France. The heretics of Languedoc are compellingly rendered, as are their dualistic beliefs and practices, which provoked Pope Innocent III's 1209 crusade. A cast of relevant historical figures with brief biographies is outlined at the beginning, maps of significant locales and battle sites are interspersed throughout, and helpful endnotes are provided. The book is marred, however, by the author's transparent loathing of medieval Catholicism and by some one-sided depictions of methods like inquisitorial procedure. Those seeking a tempered, objective, and scholarly presentation should consult other works (Malcolm Lambert's Medieval Heresy, Blackwell, 1992, for instance). Fierce bias aside, this book tells the story of the Cathars in a way that will appeal to and inform general readers. For most libraries.DLoren Rosson III, Nashua P.L., NH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.