The War on Heresy by R I Moore

The War on Heresy by medieval specialist R I Moore is a fascinating read. It is also quite an uncomfortable read for anyone interested in, or living in the Languedoc.

Le Pays Cathare, Cathar Country, has been a marketing tool for the Department of the Aude for at least 40 years, it links together 22 historical sites, castles, abbeys, monasteries and ‘medieval’ cities with a romantic theme of religious piety, regional sentiment, linguistic and cultural exceptionalism as well as a good dose of commercial opportunism. From the poetry of the troubadours to the recent novels of Kate Moss it has inspired stories of courtly love, evil priests, heroic knights, good men and women surviving against the odds. The Cathar gold has fascinated mystical Nazis, amateur historians and treasure hunters alike.

All hell broke loose down here amongst historians, amateur and professional when the Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 mounted an exhibition in October 2018 called « Les cathares, une idée reçue »,, The exhibition had been coordinated by the historian Alessia Trivellone, who said the  that while there had been religious dissent in the Languedoc in the middle ages it certainly wasn’t called Catharism. Catharism, she claims is a much more recent invention, essentially coming after the Crusades rather than the justification for them as is commonly understood.

The timing of the exhibition was in the same year of the  publication  of “Hérétiques”- the French translation of R I Moore’s War on Heresy.

Up until the 1950’s it had been generally assumed that the Albigensian Crusade was a war by the medieval Latin European Catholic countries against a powerful and well organised religious sect, that was particularly prevalent in the Occitan speaking areas of what is now Southern France and Northern Italy.

The key modern(ish) that brought together this thesis was Charles Schmidt’s “History and Doctrines of the sect of the Cathars or Albigeois” published in 1849 . Schmidt, a Professor of Practical Theology at the Protestant seminary in Strasbourg, conducted a comprehensive review of the primary sources available on the heresy, that is contemporary or near contemporary texts, mainly inquisitorial transcripts and treatises from the 13th century. He concluded that from it’s origins in the Balkans a distinctive, and recognizable dualist theology emerged in Southern Europe, he found common themes of a rejection of the material world as belonging to the devil, or evil, and absolution cold only be achieves by abstention for the world of evil, Along with an ascetic life came also a rejection of the existing organised religion of the Catholic Church, a refusal to recognize the role of priests, of holy relics, and the whole trappings and rituals of Catholic religious culture. The fact that similar themes of heresy were found from Orleans to Italy showed, argued Schmidt that, that there was distinct commonality that linked Catharism together into a recognizable body of religious theology.

This these has been the basis of much of modern understanding of Catharism and religious dissent in the Languedoc- that it was written a full 700 years after the events and is wholly dependent on the Catholic Church’s records from the time does not seem to cast any hesitation for a full hundred years.

In the 1950s this dominant theory began to be questioned, Herbet Brundmann in Germany and Raffaello Morghen in Italy started to look at the similarities of the criticism of the 11th and 12th Century Catholic Church from heretics and Catholic evangelicals and reformers. They started to question whether the differences between Catholic and heretical criticism was as clear cut as the inquisitors and later scholars claimed. At the same time they also questioned the idea that the dualist theology accredited to the heretics by their persecutors was not in fact a case of the inquisitors finding what they wanted to find. This argument lies at the heart of the War on Heresy

“In consequence of this more critical approach it was widely (though not unanimously) accepted by the 1970s that there was no compelling evidence of a dualist movement in the west, or of eastern influence on western heresy, before the 1140s. The eleventh century reports of heretical activity were inspired not by Bogomils from Bulgaria but by supporters of the movement for spiritual regeneration and reform of the church whose impatience or enthusiasm has pushed the ecclesiastical authorities too far”  – R I Moore in Afterthoughts on The Origins of European Dissent

In the War on Heresy, Moore builds on the work of Monique Zerner and Lean Louis Biget historians from NIce University, to closely examine both the relevant religious and secular accounts of the time building up to the Crusades, the historical context and the political power struggles involved, placing the discussions about religious heresy into a much wider picture.

What emerges is a very different picture than the one commonly told. Far from being a hot bed of organised religious dissent the Midi had the same mish mash of beliefs as most of the Christian world, it was the process of looking for an organised heresy that pushed those who questioned the preaching of the Catholic Church underground.

So if it was not the rooting out of heresy what was the cause of the Crusades and the following Inquisition?

The way I understand it is to look at the Languedoc before the whole period, and then look at it afterwards. By the Languedoc I do no mean just the present day understanding of it, but as the whole of the Occitan speaking region, which stretched from the Gironde accross the Central Massif, the Rhone valley and through Provence into what is now Italy. The Languedoc was very different from the French speaking North.

Before the Crusades and Inquisition the Occitan region was in effect semi independent from their Northern neighbours. Although theoretically owing allegiance to the French Kings the Lords of Toulouse, Carcassonne, Narbonne and Beziers, were essentially masters only unto themselves involved in a constant whirl of local conflicts, temporary alliances, and battles for advantage. As well as the French claims to sovereignty the Spanish, in the form of Barcelona and Aragon also laid claim to sovereignty of large tracks of Occitania.

As well as the Lords of the Cities there were also the Marcher Lords, Like the De Thermes family, who ruled over the disputed lands between Occitan and Catalan speaking areas, like the Hautes Corbieres. These local warlords, and that was the best way to describe them, had long guarded over the coasts and land frontiers against incursions from Arabic raiding parties from the Spanish Emrates, Corsair pillagers, Vikings and any other chancers who fancied their hands on the frontiers. They did involve themselves in the political disputes down on the plains but were usually relatively isolated in their lofty castles.They were a law unto themselves, and what tey said was law for those unfortunate enough to live on the borders.

The Ecclesiastical powers were far from aloof from local politics, as major land owners, the had a material  interest in local affairs. The key ecclesiastical appoint of Bishops was as much a concern for the secular powers as it was for the religious. With family members and allies often being championed for key posts as much for what they could do to support the objectives of the local Lord as their spiritual piety.

After the Crusades and Inquisition the nominal over Lordship of the French speakers was no loner in question, the local aristocracy lay in ruins, those that had survived. Those that did had lost huge swaths of their wealth, and the land that had been it’s source.  Political power was firmly entrenched by the Northern rulers and their army of increasingly  Paris trained administrators. Law courts and and local government was enacted in French, or Latin.

Equally the Catholic Church was transformed, greatly enriched by land seized from those denounced as herectics, the religious orders of set up a vast network of abbeys and monasteries, some of whose wealth exceeded that of the new secular Lords, Lagrasse and Fontfroide spring to mind.

In the North land ownership, that key to medieval wealth was very different to that of the Occitan region. Primogeniture, the process here by a families estates were passed on intact to the oldest male heir ensured a continuity of wealth in the aristocracy, it also ensured a self perpetuating elite in what was predominantly an agrarian economy. It did not create a clear route to prosperity for second or third sons, or for that matter daughters.

What it did create was a structure that could support a strong military force. At the time the top of the combat pyramid of the era was the armored knight, The period’s equivalent of a tank. But knights with their expensive armor, weapons and huge  destriers horses, as well as their baggage train, servants, blacksmiths and attending men are arms were incredibly expensive to maintain.

A French Lord’s political importance was not unrelated to the strength of the military force he was capable of fielding. The system of primogeniture ensured that all the wealth of an estate was filtered to one Lord thus maximiaising the money available for military expenditure. Even this system however did not stop the militarised aristocracy for accumulating large debts in time of conflict, whether they be local or ‘abroad’. The aristocracy’s need to large revenue sources was never far from their minds.

In the Occitan region however estates were broken up in times of death, being shared out among siblings, and other family members, women included. Whereas a Northern village would have the aristocratic immediate family lording over it, and taking the taxes, the South may have two or three rival families laying claim to leadership, and in constant low intensity feuds over land, water rights, grazing right and forestry management.

What this made the Occitania to Northerns was an easy target, badly organised deeply divided, militarily backwards but possessing a huge fertile land.

The accusation of heresy, that is religious beliefs that differed from the teaching of the Catholic Church was a hugely powerful tool, Someone declared a heretic by the Catholic hierarchy was excommunicated from the Church, he no longer had the right to own land, or take part in society in any way. Repentance or exile were the two choices. It was a powerful political weapon, and one that was used both in Royal succession disputes and in regional conflicts to financially bankrupt and politically isolate opponents. The mutually interwoven nature of the aristocracy and the ecclesiastical hierarchy both in terms of family links and financial affairs meant that accusations of heresy often saw senior clergy both leading the accusation and spring to the defense of those accused. Even the Pope was pulled into major cases, particularly when heads of state were involved and the direct interests of the Church at issue.

What Moore’s book shows is that there clear evidence that there was a higher level of religious dissent in the Occitan region than in France, or indeed Northern Europe. Yes dissent existed, as it did throughout the Christian world, but there were no signs of any decree of organisation. A controversial preacher could be found preaching in  town squares, throughout Europe, probably listen to as entertainment much like a modern day speaker at Hyde Park Corner.

Despite this the Catholic Church passed a series of condemnations  between 1022 and 1163, indeed the Church egged on my Northern Bishops, and the French King slowly but gradually upped the pressure on the local secular and ecclesiastical Southerns to conform to Northern dictated norms.

This condemnation reached a peak at the Third Council of the Lateran in 1189, when the “Albigensians” were formally condemned to prison and all their land forfeit. A clear nod of the head to those who wanted to get their hands on a bit more land. It was a busy council, they also condemned the  Brabantians, Aragonese, Basques,and  Navarrese. The latter three also had major interests in Occitania. Had a good pop at Jews, banned sodomy, tried to stop priests getting married, or having sex at all.

Pressure was put to the Southern Lords to stamp on religious dissent. When they did so in a typical Southern manner which mainly involved denouncing rivals, overly powerful town councils in the case of Toulouse, and migrants, the Northern Church sent in the heavy mob, first Cistercian monks, and later after the first Crusade the newly formed fanatics of the Dominicans order.

Moore shows how these Inquisitors found what they wanted to find, signs of religious dissent everywhere. This  monks questioned peasants and town people on the minutia of theological doctrine, and when they found ignorance declared heresy. Given that the badly trained local priests didn’t know their way around the correct interpretation of the Bible as laid down by the Vatican it is hardly surprising that laymen and women were similarly confused.

The one thing the Inquisition did however do was force those who genuinely did dissent underground. Whereas before if you wanted to listen to a dissenting preacher you just had to go and stand in the crowd and listen, you now had to meet in secret. Indeed the Inquisition created the very thing it was sent to stamp out- organised dissent.

Negociations between the Southern Lords, the Church and the French King dragged on, as each fought for his own corner, and interests. Affairs reached a head in 1208 when Pierre de Castelnau, Cisterian monk from Frontfroide papal legate, and Inquisitor, involved himself in a dispute between Raymond, Count of Toulouse and the Count of Baux. Pierre de Castelnau and the by then excommunicated Raymond did not get on but then Pierre de Castelnau was not known to get on with many Southerns and had already been chased out of the Languedoc once. This time he over stepped the mark, and his authority. He was assassinated the day after his meeting with Raymond. It has never been proved who actually did the act it is generally assumed that one of Raymond’s men killed him to please his Count. Raymond bought off the enraged Pope but it was not to last, in 1209 Raymond was once again excommunicated and the Pope called a Crusade to topple Raymond and rid the South of heresy.

The Crusade was not a single event, it was a series of invasions, mainly by Northern French of the South. It lasted 20 years and saw the South torn to pieces, the existing aristocracy smashed and their wealth split between the Church and the invaders. Northern French speaking rulers were put in place, aided by Church trained clerks, the local Bishops were ousted and French speaking newly trained priests from the recently created Cathedral schools were put in their place.

From hence forth if you wanted to get on in the South you had to speak French, Occitan lived on as the language of the countryside and the poor.

Moore’s War on Heresy is a fascinating if a little academic journey through how a myth of the Cathar’s was created to justify a thoroughly secular land grab.