"Catharism and MS 609 of the Bibliothèque municipale de Toulouse", Cahiers de Fanjeaux 55 ("le «catharism» en questions"), 2020 (English version) (original) (raw)
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Open Library of Humanities (New Approaches to Late Medieval Court Records), 2019
MS 609 of the Bibliothèque municipale de Toulouse contains the registry of the largest known medieval inquisition, the so-called ‘Great Inquisition’ lead by two Dominicans at Toulouse between 1245 and 1246. Since its discovery in the nineteenth century, this registry has remained unedited and is rarely studied in detail. Yet it has become famous for being the record of a broad inquisition into the ‘general state of the faith’, one that affirms that Catharism – the theory of a dualist, organized heretical counter-Church which brought the Albigensian crusade and eventual inquisition to the lands of the Count of Toulouse – was widespread between Toulouse and Carcassonne. This article argues that the registry does not record any general survey of Cathar heresy among the population, but rather it records an inquisition principally aimed at collecting evidence against village consulates who had no greater or lesser relationship to any ‘heresy’ than the rest of the population. This argument is made by challenging the historiographic bias towards sampling the registry anecdotally, replacing it with an evaluation based on a combination of macroanalysis and close reading facilitated by the author’s digital edition of MS 609 and network analysis techniques. [Double-blind peer reviewed]
Cathar and Jewish confessions to the Inquisition at Pamiers, France 1318-1325
Multilingua, 1999
Recent studies of historical archives, including the Inquisition records of Jacques Fournier (Bishop of Pamiers, France, 1318-1325) have focused on the story-telling abilities of local peasants and heretics called before the court to defend their beliefs. This paper takes another look at these documents and finds that the relentless disputatio, or questioning, of the accusation constitutes the overarching structure of these records. Four confessions in particular-those of a woman accused of asserting that 'there is no world but this one'; a woman who refuses to swear any oath because Jesus so refüsed; a woman suspected of witchcraft, who also scoffs at the Eucharist; and a *re-Judaized' Jew, who was forcibly baptized during mob riots in Toulouse-are analyzed to reveal just how the 'truth' about each heresy is established. In each case, the accused's knowledge of books is the fundamental shaping force behind the confession. Pamiers, 1318. Jacques Fournier, the newly-appointed Bishop of Pamiers, begins a zealous search for local heretics, whom he will seek among baptized Jews suspected of returning to Judaism, and among the mountain villagers in Montaillou, a town long known for its support of the local Cathar heretics, the so-called boni Christiani or 'good Christians'. In the process of seeking out evidence against Pierre Clergue, a notorious Catholic priest, who is also a Cathar, he Interviews many of the villagers and records their peccadillos, adulteries, doubts, blasphemies, and general sympathy with the local heretics. The Inquisition records of Jacques Fournier are a thorough, meticulous and carefully kept record of his search for heretics-one of history's sorriest lapses in judicial procedure. The records give us äs well a picture of cultures in conflict (a Jew, baptized by force, defending monotheism against
A New Paradigm: “The Middle Ages without Catharism” and the Testimony of the Inquisitional Sources
Perspektywy Kultury, 2020
The article discusses the radical interpretation of Catharism which is getting more and more popular in the recent years. It’s adherents assume, that this heresy never existed for real in the regions of contemporary southern France, but was only a construct of the Catholic clergymen. In their opinion the image of well-organized and doctrinally consistent heresy was created by the Catholic polemists, basing on the ancient anti-heretical writings (mainly anti-manichaean scriptures of St. Augustine) and than it was imposed on the innocent people questioned during an inquisitorial procedure. The adherents of this interpretation (based on the interpretation of inquisitorial sources) propose a total change in the perception of Catharism, and writing it’s history anew, to fit a new paradigm—“Middle-Ages without Catharism.” The main aim of this article is to verify these revolutionary claims, basing on the analysis of the inquisitorial sources and to answer the following questions: Can we...
"THE CATHARS: The Inquisition of Southern France Cathars"
Beginning in the twelfth-century, Catharism influence spread in Western Europe, specifically in southern France and northern Italy. Their earlier beliefs were closely associated with Manichaeism that came from the Persian lands. Cathars were criticized for religious practices, which did not agree with the Christian Orthodox beliefs in many aspects. They were considered as dualists who believed in a good and evil god simultaneously. In the year 1209, Pope Innocent III put forward a decree and statutes to take action against the Cathars. The Albigensian Crusade, initiated in Albi, took drastic measures from punishments, to destruction of property and massacres of thousands of Cathers in the span of twenty years. The Crusade formally ended in 1229, but a wave of inquisitorial trials against the Cathars began that finally diminished the influence of Catharism. This essay focuses on the inquisition records and statutes against the Cathars in the thirteenth and fourteenth century in southern France. I will look at how and in what ways these texts contribute in understanding the socio-cultural life of the villages and their inhabitants, including the inquisitors and the clergy as members of the community. In addition, the sources will be analysed to get a sense of the interaction among the various groups in the community and the many forms of the relationship they had with each other.
Rewriting History? The Parisian Secular Masters' Apologia of 1254
In February 1254, the University of Paris promulgated a tract addressed to all the prelates of Christendom 1 but more specifically aimed at influential university graduates who had been promoted to higher ecclesiastical dignities. 2 This document summarizes, through the eyes of the secular masters of theology, the University's relationship with the mendicant orders from their incorporation into the University of Paris until the early 1250s. Although often taken at face value by historians, it contains assertions which contradict prima facie certain known facts. Some contemporaries denounced the perceived discrepancies: the Master General of the Dominicans, Humbert of Romans, referred to it as a 'letter of rare untruth and infamy'. 3 His confrère, Thomas of Cantimpré, simply dismissed it as plenas mendaciis—a pack of lies. 4 Modern historians have likewise expressed their reservations about the letter's veracity. 5 One of the topics disputed by them, on the basis of this apologia, concerns both the exact number of magisterial chairs present within the theological faculty in 1254 and the percentage of these chairs held by the regular clergy. 6 The 1254 letter reveals not only a subjective and selective version of recent history by the seculars, but also a dramatic shift in university strategy vis à vis the mendicant orders. When faced both with the rapid encroachments of the friars upon time-honored academic procedures and the seemingly pro-mendicant policies of Pope Innocent IV (1243–54), the University set aside its traditional papal alliance and began to court the support of the secular clergy outside of the university milieu. In order to assess the accuracy of the events as described by the secular theologians in their bid to win extra-university aid, this paper examines the University's early history and involvement with the mendicant orders, concentrating on the four main accusations raised against the friars: 1) that the