Origins
Catharism appeared in Europe around the 11th century and followed the emergence of various heresies. It easily took root in the south of France, which was a tolerant region used to the cohabitation of different religions. The Jews lived peacefully alongside the Catholics and the Muslims occupied Spain on the other side of the Pyrenees. They lived in communities often linked to crafts such as weavers. The designation "Cathar" comes from the Greek catharos meaning "the purified". The Cathars themselves only called themselves good Christians or good men. The Catholics called them Albigensians.
Philosophy and beliefs
So the Cathars were Christians. However, they believed that their universe was too terrible to be the work of God alone. They were therefore convinced of another creative principle. In John's Gospel, they couldn't imagine the good tree bearing bad fruit (parable of the good and bad tree). In their view, God could not be responsible for evil. For them, there were two creatures, two creators, but only one God. They were convinced of the reincarnation of the spirit, and their attitude was to be as close as possible to that of Christ's disciples. All the sacraments of the Catholic Church were rejected, and their faith was based on the teachings of the New Testament. They had no places of worship, and gave sermons as they went along the villages and roads. They only used the rite of "consolament", which consists of placing the hands and the Bible on the believer's head before death. Given the harshness of life in those days, the simple believer lived an ordinary life, and could even establish very good ties with the village Catholic priest. Believers, the "Perfect Ones", lived an apostolic, almost ascetic existence, were vegetarians and rejected sexuality or private property. From the 12th century onwards, the Catholic Church was concerned about this heresy, but tried to combat it not by violence, but by using the same persuasive technique as the Cathar preachers, namely meeting with the inhabitants and organizing contradictory debates with the clerics... Dominique de Guzman, the future Saint-Dominique, was a renowned field preacher.
The Crusade
Faced with the failure of this strategy and the assassination of the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, King Philip Augustus of France submitted to the orders of Pope Innocent III and launched the crusade against the Albigensians in 1208. The extreme poverty of the Catholic north was mirrored by the wealth of the Cathar south. The crusading army was led by one man, Simon de Montfort, who became very popular throughout Languedoc. The crusade quickly turned into a war of conquest, as the political stakes appeared to be very high. Indeed, it's difficult to discuss the Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade without mentioning the political importance of these dramatic events. Clearly, the Counts of Toulouse wanted to emancipate themselves from French dependence. Subsequently, the Roman Church was exposed to a real risk of competition. This was due to the instability of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the difficulties inherent in the Crusades in the Holy Land, which were less and less encouraged and often diverted to military ends by Crusader troops.
Victory for the King of France
From 1209 onwards, the crusaders scored a series of victories: massacre and victory at Béziers, capture of Carcassonne, capture of Fanjeaux and Pamiers... In 1212, the King of Aragon, who was close to the Counts of Toulouse and Carcassonne, sent his army to the town of Muret, near Toulouse, for the final battle against the French army, but was killed there. Simon de Montfort was victorious. Montfort was killed during the siege of Toulouse in 1218, his head smashed by a catapult carried by women. It would take another ten years for the opposing forces to clash, heralding the gradual decline of the Occitan armies until the Treaty of Meaux in 1229, which marked the end of the Crusade and put the brakes on the Midi's aspirations for independence. The kingdom of France was almost as rich as the county of Toulouse. Unfortunately, it fell victim to the shifting and indecisive positions of the Occitan lords. The many conflicts between local lords over the course of events contributed to the collapse of Languedoc. The attachment of the former county of Toulouse and Provence to France was completed by the direct intervention of the kings of France.
The Inquisition
Peace seemed to have returned, territories were prospering, bastides were springing up... However, there was still one evil that travelled the roads of Occitania and terrorized the population: the Inquisition. It practiced "the question", in other words, torture, and systematically interrogated all Ariegeois. In 1242, Pierre Roger de Mirepoix massacred inquisitors in Avignonet, setting off a wave of revolt in Occitanie. The Counts of Languedoc, Narbonne and Foix joined a new army of the Count of Toulouse and recaptured, among others, the city of Carcassonne and the town of Béziers. But the wind of revolt failed to produce the expected uprising, and the small army was forced to submit. A pocket of resistance was then established in a few Pyrenean castles, including Montségur.
The end of the Cathars and of medieval Occitania
In 1204, the château de Montségur was destroyed, but a Cathar bishop from Mirepoix, worried about a bad omen, asked Raymond de Péreille to rebuild it as a place to live and take refuge. The château soon became one of the main physical and spiritual centers of Catharism. It underwent four sieges, three of which were in vain, until the fatal March 1244 surrender, becoming a major symbol of Cathar resistance. On March 16, more than 200 Cathars were burned at the stake in what is now known as the Prat dels Cremats, or Burnt Meadow. Not one of them abandoned his or her convictions. Women and children threw themselves into the flames without shouting or complaining. It's even said that they sang.
