Thursday, November 4, 2010

From ancient times to 1206

This is the record of a slide talk I gave at the Queen of Heaven Gnostic Church Nov. 7, 2010, on the topic, "The Cathars from ancient to modern times." It is based on the handout I gave out, a time line of Cathar history, drawn from published sources given at the end, plus the images I used, photos that come from two trips to Cathar sites, 1999 and 2001, supplemented by images from the Internet or print sources. I include here material not covered in the talk: an interpretation of Shakespeare's Juliet as a Cathar heroine in part 3; additional material on Peter Martyr, also part 3; a fuller defense of my view of the Cathars' view on sex, part 1, and fuller explanations elsewhere. Part 4 is extensively rewritten compared to my handout.

Introduction: Who were the Cathars? They were the "perfecti" of the Cathar Church, both men and women, equivalent to priests in other religions, which in Western Europe flourished mainly in the 12th and 13th centuries. The word "Cathar" is one given to them by their enemies. Their friends called them the "good men," "bonnes hommes" in French, or sometimes "the good Christians." Exactly where the name "Cathar" came from is not clear. Some people say it comes from the German word for "heretic," i.e. "Ketzer." I have not looked to see if that word predates the rise of the Cathars. Another theory is that it was used by analogy to an early sect called the "cathari," or "pure ones," pronounced heretical by the first Nicean Council of 325 c.e. Another theory is that it is from the German word "katz," meaning "cat," because they were sait to work with devils who took the form of a cat. In Italy they were called Patarenes.

The Cathars were the last big survival of ancient Gnosticism. Their immediate predecessors were the Bogomils of the Balkan peninsula, as may be seen in the time line below. They emerged from the Paulicians, who traced their origin to Paul of Samasota, a 3rd century Syrian bishop declared heretical by the established church. The Paulicians had come into contact with Gnostic-influenced groups such as the Messalians, whose beliefs were influenced by he Manicheans.

To read this blog, just scroll down. To get to a particular chapter, you can use the links to the right.

CATHAR TIMELINE, TO 1206.

1st-2nd century. Vision of Isaiah written, a basic document of Bogomils and Cathars, Jewish-Christian-Gnostic.

3rd century: Time of Paul of Samasota, pre-Nicean bishop of Antioch, an “adoptionist” heretic (according to which Jesus became Christ and the Son of God at his baptism, not before).

8th century: Paulicians recorded in Asia Minor. Originally part of Syrian Church, then Armenian (east of Turkey), but condemned by Armenians after “reforms.” They are adoptionists, hostile to images, reject veneration of cross. In Armenia they could have come into contact with the Mani-influenced Messalians.

747. Byzantine Emperor settles many Paulicians in Thrace, to protect the Empire against the Bulgars to the north.

843. Other Paulicians set up independent state after Byzantines become hostile to iconoclasm, but are driven back to Armenia. They apparently have exchanged adoptionism for dualism (devil = Old Testament God, who created our world of matter), a change also appearing in Thrace. Christ had only a spiritual body; water baptism and the eucharist are part of world of matter; the eucharist explained as an allegory for the teachings of Christ; laying on of hands takes place of water baptism. Old Testament rejected.

927. Byzantine priests write polemics against “Manicheans” who hold that the devil is the eldest son of God, sent to Hell for his pride, where he created our world.

970 – 1100. Bogomilism spreads into Balkans and into western Asia Minor. “Outbreaks" of heresy in France, northern Italy, Low Countries, Upper Lorraine. Word "cathar" appears in German area. It might be from the German for "heretic": Ketzer. Or it might be from the name of a sect condemned at the first Nicean Council, the cathari, from the Greek for "purified ones."

Image: map showing situation before 1100. Notice that the Paulicians andBogomils, are scattered among three locations: not just the Balkan peninsula of Europe, but also Turkey and Armenia. Turkey is important because that is where the Sufis were centered later, c. 1400. The map below is from Lambert, Medieval Heresies.


972. Cosmas’ treatise against priest named Bogomil, meaning “loved by God.” They reject Orthodox liturgy, and wine (but some approve wine later). Myth: the devil made human bodies, but without life until Father breathed soul into him. Then the Devil tempts Eve into sex, which binds us to mattter. More ascetic than Paulicians, rejecting sex, as well as the killing of animals and people, and the eating of animal products. The only good marriage is that of the soul and spirit in paradise. These strictures are only for the perfecti, however, who thus are made such late in life. It seems to me that the reason they reject sex and animal products is because it ties one to the body and matter, as opposed to the spirit.

Some books say, citing Inquisition testimony, that it is only procreation that is rejected, along. with the things that go along with procreation, such as milk and eggs. I don't think that is right. I suspect that the Inquisitors framed their questions in such a way that procreation was all they asked about. They wanted to present the Cathars as homosexuals, or "bougres," a corruption of "Bulgar." The Bogomil myth about the fall was that at first Adam and Eve didn't know about sex. Then the serpent taught Eve, and Eve taught Adam. The "tree of knowledge" was the snake of "carnal knowledge." That was the fall. Children followed, but the fall, in that story, was engaging in sexuality. It didn't matter what gender the serpent was.

A Bogomil/Cathar Myth: the souls of some humans are of angels who fell with Lucifer. In spiritual baptism,the Gospel of John was laid on the initiate's head and the initiating perfectus lay hands on the shoulders of the initiate.

1145. Bernard of Clairvaux preaches against Cathars in Albi/Toulouse area. Knights’ clanging of armor prevents him from preaching outside a church in a village near Toulouse, despite his healing the son of a heretic. Advocates state interference against prosylitizers. Warns that burnings will follow; calls them the “little foxes” who “spoil the vine” in his commentary on the Song of Songs.

1163. Hildegaard of Bingen writes about the new “unleashing of the devil,” starting either 62 or 82 years earlier, with their trial and burning at Cologne in 1143, but still continuing. These heretics have the characteristic Bogomil beliefs and structure.

Image: routes showing connections between Balkans and Western Europe. Four separate church Balkan churches are indicated, each with slightly different doctrine. The most important early on was the "Church of the Latins" in Constantinople, which would have trained Western Europeans who were living there temporarily, either merchants or crusaders or religious pilgrims, for life as perfecti in their home country. Then later bishops from the other churches came to re-console the perfecti in the name of new doctrines, described in the next entry.



1165. Nicetas re-consoles perfecti of Italy and Langudoc in St. Felice, near Toulouse, because their previous consoler had “lain with a woman” and also preached an erroneous doctrine. For Nicetas the god of the Catholics is not the elder son of the good God, but an eternally existing separate principle. This is accepted by the Langdochians but splits the Italians into two camps, “moderate dualists” of Concorezzo and “radical dualists” of Desenzano. It was estimated by the Inquisition that in 1250, 1500 perfecti were with the former and 500 with the latter. Radical dualists admitted part of Old Testament: Wisdom Literature, Psalms, and some of the Prophets. The differences between the "radical" and "moderate" dualists are only at the most rarified level. Both groups have three levels: hearers, believers, and perfects. The consolamente is the purifying rite, binding the person to a strict life, for perfecti and people on their deathbeds.

Concorezzo, the seat of the "moderate dualists," is interesting in another regard. It is within 5 miles of where another sect of the time, the Gugliemites, had a center, in which the abbess--or Popess, as the Catholics charged--Sister Manfreda, was a member of the Visconti, the ruling family of Milan. (My source: https://marygreer.wordpress.com/category/major-arcana/) Manfreda's convent was in a town named Biassono , only 5 miles from Concorezzo. In the 15th century, a later Visconti named Bianca Maria frequently visited the church at Brunate, which has a "Saint Guglielma" chapel; so she had to be aware of Manfreda's connection. Bianca Maria Visconti is famous in tarot card history for being a key figure involved with the first known tarot cards, those of first the Visconti and then the Sforza, after she married Francesco Sforza. Some people see the tarot Popess card as reflecting Sister Manfreda. Also, some people see Cathar symbolism in the early tarot. I do not; but the proximity of the two sites is striking.

For now let us return to the Languedoc, in what is now southwestern France. Here is a road sign entering the Department of the Ariege; if nothing else, it indicates that they are ready for fans of the Cathars. Actually, we have been in Cathar Country ever since our plane touched down in Toulouse, which was at about the geographic center of Cathar activity.


1204. Esclarmonde de Foix, the sister of Count, is consoled at Fanjeux (south of Toulouse, in the province of Foix) by Cathar bishop of Toulouse, Guilhabert de Castres. She sets up houses for women in Pamiers and elsewhere. In that same year Montsegur, which I have read might have been owned by Esclarmonde, is fortified and established as retreat center and place of pilgrimage.



1206.
St. Dominic (1170-1221) arrives en route between Spain and France. He is astonished to find the region he is passing through to be filled with heretics preaching quite openly. He sets himself up in one of the places known for Catharism, Fanjeax, and begins preaching against Cathars.



Image: close up of plaque on house. We will see later why Dominic left in 1215.


Dominic debates Cathars at nearby Montreal; a miracle purportedly occurs, the paperon which Dominic had written his refutation doesn't burn when thrown on the fire, unlike that of the Cathars he is debating. Dominic sets up houses for women, so as to counteract those of Esclarmonde de Foix. Soon he gets permission to establish a new monastic order, a preaching order later known as the Dominicans.

Image: fresco by Fra Angelico, 15th century Italian. At left, Dominic holds up the "testament of the Faith," a kind of check-list of questions to ask suspected heretics. At the time, Cathar perfecti were pledged not to lie to anyone, even Inquisitors. At right is the miracle of the fire that wouldn't burn the paper.


South of Fanjeux is the capital of the region, also called Foix. Still a rather small town dominated by the castle in which Esclarmonde de Foix grew up with her brother Raymond-Roger, Count of Foix.



The castle is rather tall. It remains as it was, except that all that remains inside are some archeological relics from caveman times and suits of armor.





It was never taken in battle. The wily Counts of Foix always knew when to fight and when they couldn't win and had to compromise. Raymond-Roger and his son Raymond-Roger II reportedly fought the enemies of the Cathars on numerous occasions. But when the French army arrived in force in 1443, he struck a deal instead.

Beneath the castle flows the beautiful Ariege River, which soon leads up into the Pyrenees.



Not twenty miles south of Foix is the spa town of Ussat les Bains. It was told to me that a Cathar cave lay above the town, with mysterious markings inside. I followed the signs for caves, but none looked liked what I want. I took the picture below at one of them. I think I eventually did find the right cave, purportedly called the Cave of Bethlehem. It had no sign pointing to it. It is quite close to the village directly east uphill. By then it was too dark for me to see inside.



On the other side of the mountains to the east, many miles distant, lies fabled Montsegur, mountain of safety, likely the model for Wolfram von Eschenbach's Grail Castle of Munsalvaesche, meaning "mountain of salvation."



Although used previously as a fortress, one feature of the fortress suggests that it had a sacred function even before the Cathars. Because of its connection to the sun, it was probably initiated by the Celtic priests known as Druids, for whom the sun was the symbol of an important god. It's orientation is between East and South (below, from postcard bought in village).



So at the Summer Solstice the following occurs at dawn:



This is the result of the sun's rays having to go through the slits in the opposite wall.



I need to point out that the ruins that we see today are not those of the 13th century fortress. That one was completely leveled by the French army, so that it couldn't easily be rebuilt. Then laterthe French rebuilt it from scratch. However I suspect that many of the old stones in the middle used as filler are from the 13th century walls. Breaking and hauling rocks was too much trouble.



Besides its military and spiritual value, another reason for choosing Montsegur was that it was at the intersection of two trail systems, one going west toward the Mediterranean and the other going south to Catalonia. Below is a modern sign post at the site.



"Sentier" is French for "trail." And here is a map in French and Catalan, of the route south. Here the right side is north, the left side south. These two systems are now simplified into the two "Sentier Cathar" and "Chemin des Bonhommes" (Road of the Good Men) for the sake of modern hikers or horseback riders who want to go along the high mountain ridges interrupted occasionally by ruined castles.



In the beginning, as I have said, Montsegur had a modest role as retreat center and pilgrimage site, plus occasional use as a refuge. Later its use expanded. I will return to Montsegur later on in this blog.

Languedoc, 1206-1244

My first post covered the period through 1206, when St. Dominic establishes his base in Fanjeux and the Cathars are rebuilding the citidel of Montsegur. The Pope, of course, gets a full report of what is happening in Languedoc. My timeline continues.

1207. The Pope fails to get France and Aragon to attack Toulouse. Sends legate to Raymond VI of Toulouse; negotiations fail, Raymond excommunicated by legate.

Jan. 1208. Papal legate assassinated, allegedly by an officer of Raymond VI.

Why anyone would think that a heretic killed Raymond VI is beyond me. To be excommunicated from the Church of Satan, as the Cathars considered the Roman Catholic Church, would not seem to be something to get upset about. It is only a Catholic who would find this a cause for alarm. Nonetheless it is just what the enemies of Cathar have been looking for, a fortunate accident, if nothing else, to use as an excuse.

June 18, 1209. Raymond VI makes submission to the Church, is scourged in public at St. Gilles.

1209. Pope Innocent III preaches a crusade against Languedoc, which commences early July. Here is a map of the region that shows the route of the crusaders, from east of Beziers toward Toulouse in the west. They pretty much followed the route of the modern Autoroute, although of course they went on foot and horseback on roads that were considerably less advanced. Ignore the difference below between white and orange; I simply scanned the front cover of my Michelin map, where the white indicates what is covered in the detailed map inside.



July 1209. Citizens of Beziers refuse to give up their heretics. Crusaders massacre tens of thousands, including burning down the Cathederal and other churches where people flee. The Cistercian chronicler reports that the legate reportedly said “Massacre them for the Lord knows his own,” French tours of the area say that the ones responsible for the massacre were undisciplined hangers-on to the army, who acted without orders. Lambert observes that the reported order incorporates a quotation from Tim. II, hence probably was said by an educated member of the hierarchy.

Image: Carcasonne, walled city inauthentically restored in 19th century.




August 1209.
Siege of Carcasonne. The defenders' strategy is to wait til the crusaders have served their 40 days and gone home, but nobody shows any sign of leaving. There is no water. Visconte Raymond-Rogier, presumably guaranteed safe conduct to negotiate surrender, is thrown in prison instead; he soon dies (of dysentery or poison). Inhabitants leave near-naked, presumably offering their worldly goods in exchange for their lives.



The account below, from a kiosk on the Autoroute, somewhat white-washes the event.



It says that peasants had been admitted from the surrounding area. Some accounts say that the ones who left without even any clothes were these peasants. But the crusaders wouldn't have wanted to leave untrustworthy citizens inside a walled city, ready to open the gates when the main body of the crusaders left. They would have put in their own people. This account does not touch on the Viscount's coming out to negotiate, which would presumably have been under a safe conduct pass. Simon de Montfort was made the new Viscount of Carcasonne. That happened in late August. The former Viscount died Nov. 10.

Over the next couple of years, Simon slaughters anyone who resists, and succeeds in burning hundreds of presumed Cathars in the Carcasonne-Beziers vicinity.

Carcasonne, under Simon de Montfort and beyond, will later become the center of the Languedoc Inquisition. There is supposedly a red door behind which is the Inquisitor's office, as well as numerous instruments of torture used. I would like to have seen them, not because I enjoy such things, but just because I would like to compare the comments there with the oft-repeated statements that only the "temporal power" actually used such things, although admittedly at the direction of the Inquisitors. Unfortunately the day I picked to visit seems to have been an obscure French holiday (probably Catholic).

Image: the medieval city behind the walls.


1212. Pedro II of Aragon comes to Raymond VI's aid. He attacks at Muret; along with thousands of others, he is killed. Simon systematically burns crops and takes towns around Toulouse.

1215. Raymond capitulates, and Simon enters Toulouse triumphantly.

1216. Toulouse rebels; Simon returns and this time destroys the city's defenses.

1217. Toulouse rebels; Raymond VI allows the walls of Toulouse to be rebuilt. In the siege that follows, a stone from a catapult kills Simon de Montfort. His successor and son proves incompetent and uninspiring. Raymond (d. 1222) allows Cathar houses to re-open in Fanjeux and elsewhere, and Guilhaberte preaches freely.

1226. Louis VIII invades Languedoc. Crops burned, wells poisoned, livestock killed, orchards cut down.

1229. Peace of Paris, Raymond VII, son of Raymond VI, cedes Toulouse to France effective at his death, accepts scourging in Paris.



1227-1232. Inquisition formed, with Dominicans as chief agents in Languedoc and northern Italy.

1232. Raymond cooperates with Inquisition. Guilhabert de Castres persuades the lord of Montsegur (with tacit assent of the Count of Foix) to strengthen fortifications and allow Cathar settlement. 400-500 live in fort and in the village below.



From the ramparts:


View of village from above, from a postcard:


1235. Dominicans expelled from Toulouse, on orders of Raymond VII and the consuls of the city.

1241. Raymond promises Louis IX to destroy Montsegur.

1242. Raymond VI rebels.

1243. Council of Beziers decides to destroy Montsegur. French troops sent by the French regent Blanche of Castile land on SW coast, on territory belonging to English king. He has been warned but puts up only a weak defense. Foix negotiates a separate peace with France, and Toulouse is forced to follow suit. On May 13 French troops besiege Montsegur, soon joined by Languedoc conscripts. In November, the new Cathar bishop, Bertrand Marty, declines offer from Cathars in Cremona Italy to settle there.

March 1244. Montsegur defenses breached. Truce negotiated March 1. Surenders on March 14. Mass burning March 16. Oldenbourg thinks that a local who had been supplying food was forced into divulging the secret path to the top, by jailing his family and threatening to burn them. This photo of Montsegur shows some indication of its vulnerability.



Before the surrender, 21 believers take the Consolamente, ensuring that they will be burned at the stake. According to tradition, "Le Bruler," the burning, took place just below the castle, although some sources say that the 200 or so Cathars were taken to another site. The ashes probably were not buried there, as ashes were usually dumped in a river. This would have been to intimidate Catholics who believed that the body had to survive in one piece for the resurrection. Cathars did not believe in the resurrection of the physical body, but rather of the soul or spiritual body. Here is my photo of the field below the castle.



There is also this one, from a tourist brochure.



Here is a 13th century drawing of someone being burned at the stake, reproduced in many books. I am not sure whether it is scratched on a wall or from a book. I think it is meant to be sympathetic, given the look of quiet determination on the person's face.



There is also a monument to the dead, erected by a Society for Cathar Remembance and Study.



Behind the monument, you might notice the parking lot full of cars. I was surprised to find so many people there, including tour buses. It was a French holiday period. There were even free talks on-site every hours in French, as we can see below.



To return to a more serious note, perhaps here is a good place for me to a Cathar prayer, the beginning of which I found on a postcard at Montsegur. The prayer appears in the original Occitan and French translation in Rene Nelli's Ecrivains Nonconformiste du Moyen-Age Occitan, Vol. 2. An English version appears in Oldenbourg's Massacre at Montsegur, p. 376. I made an English translation of my own before I knew the one in Oldenbourg. My main mistake is in the verbphrase I translated as "mistake yourself": it should be "are deceived," if the one in Oldenbourg is right. Another possibility is that it means "make a mistake" and the verb I translated as "err" means "stray" (as in "knight errant").



The reference to knowledge as well as love suggests a Gnostic orientation. The material world is an alien world, as the soul devoted to the God of good spirits is from elsewhere.

The prayer goes on to relate how Lucifer lured angels into this world, with the promise that they would have the power to enjoy both good and evil, rather than only the good, as above--i.e. he promised knowledge of good and evil. The angels tried to escape, but they met a "sky of glass" from which they only slid back down. Perhaps this is a reference to reincarnation. But God came down from heaven and "took ghostly shape in Holy Mary," the prayer concludes. There is no suggestion that Jesus is an angel himself. It does seem to say that Jesus had only a spiritual body, not a physical one.

For more extensive discussion of this prayer, with a reproduction of the rest of it, see the Appendix to this blog, at th end.

There are stories of a secret Cathar treasure that was removed from Montsegur by a small party of knights. Hitler among others did quite a bit of digging in the area to find it. Some people think that it was just books. I think that there were actual objecdts of value, such as jewelry, because people made bequests to the Cathars. These objects would have been used to pay bribes to protect Cathars elsewhere, either in the Languedoc or in Italy, where they were now coming under attack. The knights would have gone from castle to castle, protected by sympathetic local nobility, a series of castles that stretched across the region. For example here is Perepyteuse, in a photo from the upper castle down onto the lower one.



By the same token, the burning is by no means the end of Catharism in the region. It was mainly old Cathars who couldn't travel who died there. followed by intense Inquisition activity throughout region over the next 50 years. Cathar perfecti could still travel by hidden paths, and they and refugees traveling to Italy or Catalonia had the castles as places to rest on the journey. The Church hierarchy was also intact; there was a bishop of Toulouse, for example, Bernard of Oliba, who is recorded as being in Cremona by 1451. But the survival of the Cathars didn't last. One by one the castles fell to the Inquisition's forces. And Italy and Catalonia also had inquisitions, although not as effective yet as the one in Languedoc. Bernard of Oliba was captured in 1476, burned in 1478.

1255. Queribus, last “Cathar castle” in Languedoc falls to Inquisitors, eliminating refuges for Cathar travelers. It was not taken by direct assault. Rather, the son of the owner was imprisoned by the Inquisition and his father told that if he wanted the son back, he would have to surrender the castle. After evacuating any visitors, he did so. It is now a popular spot on the "Cathar trail." One website reports that between 1980 and 2000, the number of visitors to the nearby village increased by a factor of ten.


Italy and beyond

This post continues my series on the Cathars, this time focusing on northern Italy and, at the end of the 13th century, the village of Montailou back in Foix.

Map from Malcolm Lambert, The Cathars.


1232-1268
. Holy Roman Emperor and his supporters, called Ghibillines, protect Cathars in north and south Italy. (Their opponents, called Guelphs, support the Pope's call for their exermination.) Inquisition is either not allowed or, when Guelphs temporarily gain the ascendency, sporadically so. Venice somehow is not involved.

The detail below shows the principal locations in northern Italy. Of note are Concorezzo and Desnzano, the centers of "radical dualism" and "moderate dualism"respsectively. Other important sites are Sermione, on Lake Garda, with the last sizable Cathar community, and Cuneo, in the far northwest, in which Cathars practiced relatively freely up to the 1370s.



c. 1240-52. Dominican Peter of Verona, General Inquisitor for northern Italy since 1234, reportedly organizes confraternities in Florence, backed by armed nobility, that in 1245 drive out the Cathar families and burns their houses. Still today there are monuments in two squares in Florence celebrating Peter's victories; none mention the Ghibilline comeback in 1460.

1452. Peter is murdered near Milan, a popular theme in Renaissance art. The murderer, Carino da Balsamo, implicates Cathar supporters in Milan, although he is not involved with them other than as a paid assassin. Cariono later repents and becomes a lay brother of the Dominicans (Wikipedia, article on Peter of Verona); Lea (vol 2 p. 215) says that after his death he was was made Saint Acerinus. Wikipedia says only that he was the object of a local cult as "Blessed Carino of Balsamo." There is also the essay, "The Assassin-Saint: The Life and Cult of Carino of Balsamo," by Donald Puldo, published in the Catholic Historical Review for Jan. 2008 (excerpted on Encyclopedia Britannica website); more details are in his book The Martyred Inquisitor: the Life and Cult of Peter of Verona (excerpts in Google Books; I haven't read much of it yet.) Puldo says that Carino was a local saint, not officially approved by the Vatican; his feast day is November 12. Another conspirator, Daniele da Giusanno, also enters the Dominican order according to Lea; but a man by that name is an Inquisitor in the case (Puldo, book p. 189)--either there is some confusion here, or a gross misapplication of justice. 2 others are set free and told to report to the Pope, but don’t (Lea).

Image: Giovanni Bellini, The assassination of Peter Martyr, 1507. Only one assassination was reported in testimony collected by the Inquisition.


Image: another version by Giovanni Bellini, where it is clearer which one is Peter.


The Lombard nobleman said to have furnished the money, Stefano Confaloniere, is implicated by four men, all with some degree of complicity but set free (per Prudlo; one deposition is translated in his book). The depositions include details which the witnesses could not possibly have observed, such as where on the body Peter was stabbed. The two witnesses with the least involvement are not even required to do penance. Another odd thing is that Carino, after murdering the two Dominicans, is captured by an unarmed farmer. (The depositionsspecify only one assassin, not two or three as in the paintings.) Stefano is the only one sentenced to prison, and even that doesn't happen until 43 years later. Peter is canonized in a record 11 months. As a result of the murder, support for Dominicans grows temporarily, but is not sustained. There is also mass opposition to Peter's canonization.

1260
. Florence is retaken by the Ghibillines under Farinata, with the assistance of Manfred, King of Sicily. Manfred is the natural son of Emperor Frederick II, who died in 1250. This family, the Hohenstaufen, is German, but Frederick and his descendants were all born and raised in Sicily.) Farinata is a prominent character in Dante's Inferno, in the Circle of the Heretics. There he is called an Epicurean, which is what the Church labeled heretics who seemed to worldly to be Cathars; but in fact he was of a Cathar family.

Image: Farinata,Dore's illustration to Dante's Inferno.


1263.
By now all of Northern Italy in Ghibillene hands (except neutral Venice). The Pope, in a final bid for a crusade, agrees to give Charles of Anjou control of southern Italy and Sicily in return for his defeat of the Empire. Pope will pay the costs. Control of banking to go to Florence Guelphs. An illustration to Dante's Paradiso done by a Sienese (Siena was Ghibbeline)shows the arrangement. After Charles' conquest, money will pours into the Pope's hands from the Devil, sitting on one of the towers of Florence, identifiable by the half-finished dome of the 1420s and the red lily on the gate. The figures in the yellow disc are the troubadour Foulke, who became the militantly anti-Cathar Bishop of Toulouse during the time of the Crusade, and Cunizza da Romano, sister of the pro-Cathar Lord of Verona Ezzelino da Romana. She was known for burying three husbands, probably represented by the hills, and also for being the lover of the troubadour Sordello. She ended her life in Florence, where she was a childhood friend of Dante.



1265. Charles of Anjou defeats Manfred, heir-apparent to Holy Roman Empire, at Battle of Benevento, Cathars are burned by cartloads.

1260s. A Cathar community set up on the promontory of Sirmione, protected on three sites by Lake Garda.

Image: aerial view of the peninsula, showing the where the Cathars would have been, proably the wooded area. On the end is the ruin of a Roman villa, traditionally thought to have been that of the Roman poet Catullus.


Below is a view of the wooded area from within. The building is probably Renaissance or after, but something would have stood on this high ground earlier. The walls have the same small stones we saw at Montsegur. Notice the palm trees. The weather there is quite mild, especially compared to Montsegur, even though the two are at about the same latitude. When I was there, in early April, the orange trees had oranges already; in contrast, two weeks earlier, in the hills outside of Foix, some of the roads still were impassable because of snow.



On the fourth side is the village of Sirmione, which was friendly to the Cathars, and an old castle, which in this same period is strengthened by the Lord of Verona, Mastino della Scala.



The brochure for the fort suggests that it was used as a base from which to launch an attack on the Cathars (see second to last paragraph).



In fact no such fort would have been needed to get to the Cathars on the other side of the town. An armed force of soldiers would have been sufficient to dissuade the villagers from intervening.. It seems to me more likely that the castle was rebuilt by the della Scalas in order to protect the Cathars. As you can see, it guards the entrance to the town from the mainland. The only way in was through the castle gate, except by boat.



From the ramparts one gets a good view of the peninsula



The north end can't be seen, but a signal from the house on the high ground could be, sending soldiers to the rescue. The beach on the right is in front of a hot springs. The aging Cathar perfecti didn't have it as bad as those at Montsegur.



1267. Verona is put under Interdict by the Pope after Mastino joins Conradin, next heir to Empire, against Papacy and Guelphs. Conradin defeated 1468. "Interdict" means no sacraments will be performed, not even marriage or supreme unction. The purpose is to put pressure on the citizens to overthrow their leaders.

1268. Armanno Pungilupo buried in Ferrara cathedral. Miracles are reported by visitors to his tomb. Some want him made a saint. The Inquisition has evidence that he was a Cathar perfect. After much controversy, in 1301, his body is removed and burned. A joke about Armanno is that the Cathars said, "See, the Catholics aren't so bad. They even want to make one of us a saint." Brescia has a similar case.

1269-70.
One of Armanno’s consolees, Spera, a maid or lady-in-waiting of the Estensi, leading Guelph family in Verona, convicted of being Cathar perfecta. Chooses burning over life imprisonment.

My theory is that Spera is one model for Juliet in Shakespeare's play, which is based on a story first written in the 14th century. Then it was set in Sienna, but the citizens of Verona protested so loudly that she was theirs that subsequent versions had it in Verona. It supposedly happened in the time of the della Scalas, as we can see from the cast of characters for the play. "Escalus" is just the Latin form of "Scala."



The Capulets and the Montagues also really existed; their feud is mentioned in Dante's Purgatorio, where they have their Italian names of Capaletti and Montecchi. They may have been two families, but they were also two political parties, Guelph and Ghibilline respectively. The families belonging to each party lived on opposite sides of the town square. TheVeronese actually have a house on one side as "Romeo's house" and another on the other side, which actually existed in the 13th century, on the other side as "Juliet's House."

Image: Plaque in front of "Romeo's house" in Verona


The house itself:



And on the other side of town, Juliet's house." The balcony was added in the 19th century.



Another Guelph party was called "the Count." That corresponds to Juliet's suitor Paris, who in the play is never called a" kinsman to the Prince," as the list of characters says, but rather "the county." Capulet is trying to forge an alliance between the two parties. Notice that Mercutio, who is a kinsman to the Prince, is Romeo's friend. The Della Scala similarly were originally Ghibilline but took a compromise position in comparison to the party's traditional support for the Cathars, in finally acceding to the Inquisition. So Juliet is the Guelph family member who is secretly in love with the Cathar faith, rperesented by Romeo. Or so I imagine. Here is her statue. Touching the right breast is supposed to bring one luck.



1276. Mastino Della Scala accedes to Inquisition. 1278, 200 Cathars, most from Sirmione, burned in Verona’s Roman arena, including the last bishops of northern France and of Toulouse (Bernard Oliba). Interdict lifted. Last Italian Cathar bishop burned 1321; last perfect in Florence burned 1342.

Image: Roman arena in Verona from the outside.


Image: inside of arena, where Cathars were burnt. It is now used for opera and of course Shakespeare.


The trial and burning of Cathars was a subject for art even in the 16th century. For example, here is a painting called "Auto da Fe"--the wording comes from the Spanish term then current--by Pedro Berruguete, c. `500. According to Matteo Duni in Under the Devil's Spell: Witches , Sorcerers, and the Inquisiton in Renaisance Italy, p. 173), rom which I get the reproduction, the people being burned are Cathars. The person with the halo on top is St. Dominic; the two people with yellow garments bearing crosses are wearing the garb of convicted heretics, so they must be the ones to be burned next.



1299. Pierre and Guillaume Autier, consoled by Cathar perfect in Piedmont, return home to Montaillou, near Montsegur. Autiers win back about 1000 households to the Cathars and at least 12 perfecti.

Image: last remaining structure in medieval Montaillou, the castle, not a very big one, apparently, on some high ground.


Below the castle is what remains of the town square, around which the houses would have been built, probably made of wood. Most would have been burned down by the Inquisition at the time of their inhabitants were convicted of heresy. The site is protected by a wire fence.



And here is the surrounding valley, with modern dwellings, I think mostly vacation homes. The time is mid May, so you can see that life would have been fairly hard and bleak.


1303. Franciscan friar Bernard Delicieux (below, in what is probably a 19th century painting) speaks out against Carcasonne Inquisition for abuses; prisoners freed from dungeon by populace with non-interference by secular authority.


1305. In Montaillou, Autiers is betrayed by a credente, arrested 1309, burned 1310. From the mass arrests of 1309, one perfectus, Guillaume Bellibaste, escapes from prison for Catalonia, where he lives peacefully for 9 years. He departs from Cathar purity by secretly having a mistress. Lured back to Foix, he is burned in 1321.

1317. “Spiritual Franciscans” --the ones opposed to its prosecutory role and growing wealth--are declared heretics; manyare burned.

1370s-1380s. Inquisition in Piedmont mountain valleys. Their return visit in 1412 reveals only dead Cathars, whose bodies are duly burned. The Pope urges a crusade into Bosnia, but it never gets very far.

1389. Battle of Kosovo, beginning of Turkish domination of Balkans. Bogomils not persecuted, but discriminated against economically.

17th Century. Bogomilism dies out in Turkish-controlled Balkans, according to Lambert. I have heard anectodal tales of Bogomils continuing to exist in the remote areas, even to the present day (from refugee reports that might not be reliable), but I have no verification.

It is likely that many converted to Muslim faith, especially into Sufi sects in which they could retain much of the character of their former religion. A recent French film, The Broken Mirror, features two priests from the Bahktashi Sufi sect, which was persecuted in communist Yugoslavia and Albania and is today illegal in Turkey, although still practiced; these priests look more Christian then Muslim, and their mystical, nondogmatic talk is reminiscent of the Cathars of old.

It iseven possible that it did not die out in Western Europe, but was passed down through families awaiting a more hospitable time. The only concrete sign that I have found is a painting by Hieronymous Bosch, Flanders c. 1488, called "The Stone Operation." The book on the lady's head might be a reference to the Cathars' practice of putting the Gospel of John or the New Testament on the initiate's head during the laying on of hands.



If so, it would seem to be a satirical reference, as other aspects of the painting, such as the funnel on the head and the idea of operating on the brain to get rid of a headache, are meant satiricllly. So the laying of a book on the head to impart wisdom is also an absurdity.Admittedly, the book could be something else besides the gospel, such a quack medical book, which prescribed such operations as the one we see, or even an alchemical book. But I have not seenany suggestion from historians of art or medicine that putting a book on someone's head was part of any cure.