Carcassonne and the Albigensian Crusade

Here's a straight, no chaser version from the Catholic perspective, of the Albigensians/Cathari, a Christian offshoot that grew in the 1100s-1300s and was especially strong in what is now southern France:

The Cathari and the Catholic Church

The Catharist system was a simultaneous attack on the Catholic Church and the then existing State. The Church was directly assailed in its doctrine and hierarchy. The denial of the value of oaths, and the suppression, at least in theory, of the right to punish, undermined the basis of the Christian State. But the worst danger was that the triumph of the heretical principles meant the extinction of the human race. This annihilation was the direct consequence of the Catharist doctrine, that all intercourse between the sexes ought to be avoided and that suicide or the Endura, under certain circumstances, is not only lawful but commendable.

Weber, N. (1908). "Cathari," in The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved August 1, 2009 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03435a.htm

The officially blessed and sanctioned Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) suppressed the Cathars and brought the region under stronger French influence. Carcassone was one of the fortified cities taken, and then expanded under new management. It's still intact. I was happy to spend a fair amount of time there in the 1980s. Amazing to walk through the labyrinthine streets and spaces, something very rare to see in the USA as of 2009.



Today's Rune: Fertility.