The medieval Crusades were fought for "God, Gold, and Glory." Men took up the cross to defend Christendom against the "enemies of the church"— or to gain easy plunder — seeking a spiritual, albeit violent, path to salvation. The most inhumane of these holocausts was launched in 1209 in the Languedoc, in what is now Southern France, against a group called the Cathars. A "Christian" crusade of atrocious violence was carried out against these fellow Christians, on orders from Pope Innocent III. The Languedoc was home to a cultured, open society, in a continent riddled with superstition and fear. Its people drew spiritual inspiration from men and women of the Cathar faith. Unlike the dissolute Roman clergy, the Cathar teachers demanded no tithes, and their lives embodied the principles they taught. Les Cathares: Who were they, and what happened to them? Why did the Roman Church undertake a campaign of genocide to silence them? Was the Albigensian Crusade successful, or did some Cathars escape, taking with them a tradition dating from the first century AD?
Jehanne de Quillan is an initiated teacher of French-Irish extraction raised from childhood in the Laconneau tradition in France and in Ireland. Educated at Trinity College Dublin, she has lectured in Europe and in venues across North America, including the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
CATHAR SEMINAR MATERIALS
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Pictured above: Chateau Cathare de Puilaurens, Languedoc-Roussillon, France |
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