Chasing the Heretics: A Modern Journey Through the Medieval LanguedocKlawinski tracks the Cathars, a 13th century sect, and the Albigensian Crusade against them, across southern France, uncovering an almost forgotten history of a group of doomed believers who lived at a time when printed books were still more than 250 years in the future. When the concept that blood circulated in human bodies was 400 years away and the idea of germs more than half a millennium. What he discovers is a bloody and cruel story, rife with treachery and motivated by a lust for power and revenge, a true story almost impossible to reconcile with the t-shirt vendors and other cheap tourist attractions that stand on the very cobblestones where so many centuries before people were tortured and killed for their beliefs. As one crusader reported to the pope after an early massacre, Neither age, nor sex, nor status has been spared. While he covers as much ground in his rented Peugeot in a few hours as the crusaders covered in days or weeks, he nonetheless creates a vivid sense of that part of the world as it was then. Everything he sees is tinged with the tragic sense of the events that happened centuries before. Castles and walled cities that may be mere curiosities to other tourists, he knows to be the sites of grueling sieges and merciless inquisitions. The rugged but beautiful countryside and the current citizens of Languedoc offer Klawinski respites from the region's gruesome history, making his contemporary journey appealing for tourists and armchair travelers alike. |
Contents
The Murder at the Rhône | 3 |
The Abbey of StGilles | 19 |
3 | 31 |
Copyright | |
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Chasing the Heretics: A Modern Journey Through the Medieval Languedoc Rion Klawinski No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
abbey Albi Albigensian Crusade Amaury de Montfort Aragon Arles army Arnaud Amaury attack Avignon Battle of Muret Beaucaire Béziers bishop Bram bridge Carcassonne castle Cathar Perfects Cathars cathedral Catholic Church chapel château Cité citizens consolamentum count of Toulouse cross death Dominicans empty feet final Folquet forces fortified fortress France Garonne garrison heresy heretics Holy hundred Île-de-France Innocent Inquisition inquisitors Jacobins kilometers knights Lady Guirade lands Langue Languedoc Lateran Lavaur Louis VIII medieval military Minerve Montségur Narbonne northern Occitan Pamiers papal legate Paris Perfects Peter Peugeot Philip Augustus Pont-St-Bénézet pope Pyrenees Raymond VI Raymond VII Raymond-Roger of Foix remained Rhône river road Roman Rome Saint side siege Simon de Montfort southern nobles square St-Cyprien St-Gilles St-Nazaire St-Sernin Ste-Cécile stone streets thirteenth century tion Toulousians tourist tower town town's trebuchet troops turned valley walked walls woman wooden