In the 13th century, a group of heretics in southwest France, the Cathars, became a serious threat to the Catholic church. In several waves of repression, thousands of Cathars were killed. Yet so ardent was their faith that, early in the next century, the Cathars rose one last time. Using the breathtakingly detailed and uniquely extant documentation from this period, and drawing on his intimate knowledge of the last Cathars' tracks and hiding places, many of which survive to this day, René Weis tells the full story of this gripping historical episode.
The people of Montaillou; the steward, the chatelaine and the demon
priest - 1291-1301; exodus to Lombardy - 1296; the last perfect's return -
1299-1300; betrayal and consolidation - 1300; Pierre Maury and the Cathars of
Arques; Montaillou 1300-1305; the Cathars and Guillemette Maury - 1305-7;
wedding-bells in Montaillou - 1307-8; the consolidation of Guillaume
Guilabert -May 1308; the martyrs of Junac - 1308-10; the day the soldiers
came - 8 September 1308; endgame, and a new beginning - 1309-16; Jacques
Fournier, Bishop of Pamiers - 1317; from the Fenouilledes into Catalonia -
1307-14; Sant Mateu, Morella, Beceite and Montaillou again - 1315-18; the
traitor, the perfect, a wedding and a divorce - 1318-20; the sting; Pamiers
1321-2; the last trials of Montaillou; inside Allemans prison in 1321;
epilogue -Benoit XII and the "citoyens".
René Weis was born in 1953. He is Professor of English Literature at UCL and the author of Criminal Justice: The True Story of Edith Thompson, first published in 1988 to critical acclaim.
