The Cathars: The Most Successful Heresy of the Middle Ages

196 Pages·2009·7.67 MB·English

by  Sean Martin

Other books in this series by the same author
The Black Death
Alchemy and Alchemists
The Knights Templar

The Cathars
SEAN MARTIN
POCKET ESSENTIALS
First published in 2005 by Pocket Essentials
P.O.Box 394,Harpenden,Herts,AL5 1XJ
www.pocketessentials.com
© Sean Martin 2005
The right of Sean Martin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced,stored in or introduced into
a retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means (electronic,mechanical,
photocopying,recording or otherwise) without the written permission of the publisher.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.The book is sold subject to the condition
that it shall not,by way of trade or otherwise,be lent,re-sold,hired out or otherwise
circulated,without the publisher’s prior consent,in any form or binding cover other than in
which it is published,and without similar conditions,including this condition being imposed
on the subsequent publication.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 10:1 904048 33 1
ISBN 13:978 1 904048 33 6
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Typeset by Avocet Typeset,Chilton,Aylesbury,Bucks
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPD Ltd,Ebbw Vale,Wales
For all the Good Christians,past and present
and
In Memory of My Father,
whose feet tread the lost aeons
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Ion Mills,for bearing with me during
the writing of this book; my sister Lois, for her advice;
Nick Harding, for the usual lending of tomes and cama-
raderie;and fellow credenteAdso Brown.
• 6 •
Throughout human history,believers have waged war against one
another.Gnostics and mystics have not.People are only too pre-
pared to kill on behalf of a theology or a faith.They are less dis-
posed to do so on behalf of knowledge.Those prepared to kill for
faith will therefore have a vested interest in stifling the voice of
knowledge.
Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh,
The Inquisition
Bishop Fulk,asking a knight why he did not expel heretics,received
the classic answer:‘We cannot.We have been reared in their midst.
We have relatives among them and we see them living lives of per-
fection.’
Malcolm Lambert,The Cathars
Salvation is better achieved in the faith of these men called heretics
than in any other faith.
Anonymous French peasant,quoted in
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie,Montaillou
• 7 •