The title of our most recent presentation – the Cathars and the Albigensian Crusades, delivered by our chairman, Steve – may have seemed a rather unusual historical concept for many of us. However, Steve’s introduction as to how he first became interested in the subject – through a seemingly pointless school exercise, a dislike of a particular history teacher, misinformation regarding his possible Huguenot ancestors and Kate Mosse’s books entitled The Languedoc Trilogy was enough to stimulate his interest (and subsequently ours) into researching further into an important part of France’s history.
It was in the 12th century that the differences between the north and south of France became ever more apparent. The two areas disliked and distrusted each other, with the southerners speaking a language much closer to Catalan, and major differences in politics, land ownership and religious tolerance. The Cathars – whose name was derived from Greek and meant clean or pure – had existed since the 7th century, whose spiritual beliefs had slowly spread throughout Europe, and were based on the Gospels, rather than those of the Catholic Church. Thus, God was considered to be of pure spirit, Jesus was but an angel whose existence in the New Testament was figurative only, an individual’s soul migrated from one host to another, the killing and eating of animals was forbidden and sexual relations resulted in the introduction of a new soul into an evil world or, worse, immortalised the cycle of souls in evil bodies.
Following the assassination of his friend and ambassador, Pope Innocent III called for the Cathars to be eradicated, believing the threat of heresy had become too difficult to manage by peaceful means. The Crusade lasted 20 years, with Crusaders coming from Northern France as well as further afield, capturing key towns such as Béziers and Carcassonne, as well as Albi, Castelnaudary, Castres, Faneaux, Limoux, Lombers and Montréal. Simon de Montfort, a prominent French nobleman was subsequently granted control of much of the area.
The legacy of the crusade is considered to have been influential in the establishment of the Dominican Order as well as the Medieval Inquisition, an institution set up to combat heresy.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, 8th April when another of our members will be sharing some of his father’s cycling adventures in France.
Our club meets every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month at 2.30pm at Holy Redeemer Church Hall, Upper Church Road, St Leonards. We welcome all Francophiles and French-speaking nationals. We make a small charge of £3.00 for non-members. There is wheelchair access to the hall and free parking nearby. More information can be found on our website www.hastingsanglofrenchclub.com and on our Facebook page, HastingsAngloFrenchClub.