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

FROM THE PUBLISHER

At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Cathars, a group of heretical Christians, rose toprominence in what is now the Languedoc in southern France, but was then a patchwork of city-states and principalities beholden to neither king nor bishop. The Cathars held revolutionary beliefs that threatened the authority of the Catholic Church as well as the legitimacy of feudal law: They thought the idea of Hell to be a sham; they rejected all sacraments, including marriage; they thought private property an absurd notion and that all things worldly were corrupt; and they gave women religious status equal to men. The powerful Pope Innocent III, elected in 1198 and determined to restore the church￯﾿ﾽs power after a century of erosion, resolved to eradicate the Cathars. He recruited the forces of France (at that time a fraction of its current size), and in a series of crusades between 1209 and 1229 the Cathars and their supporters were effectively exterminated. By the time the wars were finally over, the territory of France reached to the Mediterranean, and a terrifying new force—The Inquisition—had been unleashed that would torment Europe for centuries. The Perfect Heresy eloquently chronicles one of Western civilization￯﾿ﾽs most mind-boggling tales. As he did in his highly praised Back to the Front; Stephen O￯﾿ﾽShea brings long-ago events to life through the energy of his prose and the clarity of his insight. Full of colorful and passionate personalities, his latest book sheds new light on the thirteenth century and on the timelessness of religious intolerance.

SYNOPSIS

The Perfect Heresy eloquently chronicles the life and death of the Cathar movement -- one of Western civilization's most mind-boggling tales. Full of colorful and passionate personalities, it sheds new light on the thirteenth century and on the timelessness of religious intolerance.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

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 state--the 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.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

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.--Loren Rosson III, Nashua P.L., NH Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Booknews

Canadian-born O'Shea is a journalist rather than a historian, so draws from secondary accounts and published primary sources rather than dusty archival material to tell the story of how a Christian sect in southern France was exterminated in the 13th and 14th centuries. In lively prose jeweled with vignettes and anecdotes reconstructed from legal testimony, he argues that the Albigensian Crusade was above all a colonial effort by the nascent French state to occupy and exploit the Occitan-speaking people of the south. Much literature has surfaced in the past few decades, some of it by the Cathars themselves, and he passes along what is now known about their beliefs and practices, though his main focus is political and military. The jacket includes praise from Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, distinguished historian and author of . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Richard Bernstein - New York Times