Montsegur and the Mystery of the Cathars

Description

pp. 298, “On March 16, 1244, after a year-long siege, more than two hundred Cathars were captured in their fortress stronghold of Monts?r in the Pyrenees and burned alive by troops of the Inquisition. While some Cathar enclaves survived into the next century, this was the death blow to a religion that had been a powerful symbol of Occitain sovereignty despite the designs of the French monarchy and the papacy. History has recorded that, on the night before the fall of the fortress, four high-ranking Cathar perfecti carried away a great treasure from Monts?r, a fact that led rebel Huguenots of the seventeenth century and members of Hitler? S.S. to believe that something of awesome spiritual power lay hidden somewhere near the ruins of the Cathar stronghold. Seeking to untangle the true from the false, Celtic and medieval scholar Jean Markale meticulously searches through the obscure history and dualist theology of the Cathars, tracing their roots to the ancient Zoroastrian religion of Persia. He examines what earned the Cathars–who practiced vegetarianism, nonviolence, and tolerance–the ruthless persecution of the Church and the state, and he explores both their place in medieval Occitain culture and their secret pact with the Knights Templar. Above all, Markale uses all available documentation to reveal the remarkable nature of the treasure spirited away by the Cathars on that fateful night in 1244. Poet, philosopher, historian, and storyteller, JEAN MARKALE has spent a lifetime researching pre-Christian and medieval culture and spirituality. He is the author of more than forty books, including The Templar Treasure at Gisors, The Druids, The Celts, Merlin, and Women of the Celts. He is a specialist in Celtic studies at the Sorbonne and lives in the Brittany region of France. “