The Last Days of the Cathars

There has been a huge resurgence of interest in the Cathars, a Christian sect who lived in Languedoc, an independent country in southern France during the Middle Ages. Today, more than a million tourists a year are thought to visit "Cathar Country".The unusual Cathar beliefs and teachings are described in this book, using fictional characters. The other characters are actual people who lived during that period (1200-1320).This unbiased account describes the unconventional Cathar doctrine. For example: • they believed that their Orders had come from Jesus himself, having been handed down to them in unbroken succession from the very first apostles; their tradition was thus older than the church of Rome; Cathar credents believed they were members of the original church of Jesus Christ.• they believed in dualism, that is, two gods: God and Satan; they believed that God, being incapable of evil, could not have made an evil world; the world must, therefore, have been made by Satan.Many of the Cathars' beliefs were proclaimed heretical by the church of Rome at that time, and this book relates how the Cathars were relentlessly persecuted and imprisoned for maintaining their beliefs. The book also describes how a crusade was organised by Rome in 1208 to destroy the 'heretics', which was followed by a merciless inquisition during which vast numbers of Cathar Goodmen and Goodwomen were burnt to death at the stake throughout Languedoc, culminating in the tragedy at Monségur in 1244.