The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Death of the Medieval Cathars

by Stephen O'Shea

Book Overview

Eight hundred years ago, the Cathars, a group of heretical Christians from all walks of society, high and low, flourished in what is now the Languedoc in Southern France. Their subversive beliefs... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802713505
• ISBN13: 9780802713506
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Walker & Company
• Length: 333 Pages
• Weight: 1.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.8" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

The Title IS Correct

Actually this is one of my all-time favorite books. It is one of the few histories I have read where even the notes pages are interesting to read. He also ENCOURAGES you to look into it more on your own and includes an annotated bibliography in the back. The previous reviewer is WRONG about the title. The book IS about the LIFE and DEATH of the Medieval Cathars and NOT their theology. It goes over the contextual culture and history of the area where Catharism took hold, it goes over the various events that shaped what happened to the Cathars. The title does NOT imply that it is going to be about the theology of the Cathars although he touches on that in a basic form too. This is not a book written in an academic style (admittedly so by the author himself) but designed as a version written for a larger audience than just an academic with his nose up in the air at anything that doesn't read like a lab report. This is actually a fun read. I happen to be Catholic and this is NOT a biased book I felt. O'Shea is honest about what issues the Catholic Church had at the time (and continues to have in many aspects). Although I don't agree with one reviewer that the Papacy is the Anti-Christ (what some extreme Protestant sects hold that are the inherents of the Cathars), I do think some Catholics might find the information in this book challenging depending on their knowledge of the church and its history and thier experience with it. O'Shea does miss some important facts about the Cathars - what possibly happened within their ranks that might have contributed to their demise along with the crusade; the competition with the Spiritual Franciscans and the Waldensians who shared some of their views (extreme poverty for example). Their origins are more uncertain than he puts across as far as many academics are concerned but I don't find O'Shea's speculations (and there are some leaps he makes in the book) far off from being possible. Many Catholics (depending on how conservative and maniacally orthodox they are) might be offended by this book but the truth sometimes does that to people who put dogma before facts. This book doesn't bow down to either in my view - dogma or facts but does present the facts in a novel like way. For indepth academic interest in this area - both theologically and historically, follow O'Shea's advice in the bibliography section after reading the book. But this is a very good introductory book (as was intended by the author) into a period and an event most people don't know about (or very much about) and it is vitally important to the future of Western Europe and the missionary world that later came in the 1500 and 1600s and after. Very readable and actually, for the genre of audience it is intended for, quite a good scholarly bit of info.

Excellent very readable history

My interest in the Cathars was piqued upon reading The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell. The Cathar heresy rose to prominence in the late 12th and early 13th centuries in what is now called Languedoc in southern France. At that time, the area consisted of city-states that thrived in the tolerant and liberal environment (Stadtluft macht frei - city air makes one free - was the rallying cry of medieval cities to describe the nascent liberties and independence available only in cities) The Cathars were also known as the Albigensians and, of course, claimed to be the true Christians. Their clergy were poor and ascetic, known as the Perfects. Their beliefs infuriated Pope Innocent III and threatened the Catholic Church in addition to standard feudal relationships. They believed the world was not a creation of a good God, but the construction of a force of darkness. All worldly things were thus corrupt. This included Church sacraments, including that of marriage. In addition, they believed there was no such thing as private property, and the rich trappings and property of the church represented evil. Women were accorded a place equal to men. "Matter was corrupt, therefore irrelevant to salvation." Worldly authority was a fraud. "The god deserving of Cathar worship was a god of light, who ruled the invisible, the ethereal, the spiritual domain; this god, unconcerned with the material, simply didn't care if you got into bed before being married, had a Jew or Muslim for a friend ... or did anything else contrary to the teachings of the medieval Church." The individual had to decide for him/herself whether to renounce the material for a life of self-denial. "Hell was here, not in some horrific afterlife dreamed up by Rome to scare people out of their wits." The Church itself was a hoax. No wonder Innocent was pissed. The Albigensian Crusade unleashed by Innocent has passed down a catchword to us: "Kill them all, God will know his own." That phrase is attributed to Arnold Amaury, the monk Innocent placed in charge. His instructions were followed to the letter, and the entire population of Beziers was killed - about 20,000 people. The crusade lasted from 1209-1229 and was unremitting in its violence and cruelty. O'Shea suggests it resulted in the first police state, and so devastated the region that the French monarchy was able to expand its territory into southern France. The ostensible spark that lit the fire was the murder of Peter of Castlenau. He and several other legates had been sent by Innocent to reason, i.e., convert, the heretics. They had little initial success. Imagine a retinue of rich representatives from Rome, surrounded by sycophants ,trying to persuade a dedicated group of ascetics of their essential goodness and humility. When Saint Dominic (Latin wordplay later mocked the Dominican order he founded by calling them domini canes, i.e., the dogs of god) entered the scene, he recognized their error and convinced Innocen

Poised, witty and informative

O'Shea has written a wonderful book for the average reader that is full of felicitous phrasing and memorable scenes. Though experts in this rather obscure chapter of history have quibbled over the limited field of inquiry that he presents, I can safely encourage any level of reader to pick up this book.I, for one, am relieved that he presents the events of a time crowded with incident and luxuriating in tangled family ties in such a linear and comprehensible manner. Anyone who reads a lot of these semi-scholarly popular histories will have suffered through many a boring passage or recondite digression that serve only to confuse a person who hasn't got a stack of scholarly tomes at his fingertips ready for an obsessive cross-referencing. O'Shea presents a confusing period of time more lucidly than I have ever seen: I was always aware of which events happened in which order, and he managed to bring the characters on and off the stage with enough background information to keep them all straight in my head without the slightest bit of confusion or mental fatigue.Perhaps to students of history such concerns seem almost criminally flippant; but if one is reading history for entertainment rather than education, such concerns can make the difference between a purchase or a pass.After the utter fascination of the subject matter (Heresy! Inquistition! Medeival gore galore!), the most satisfying aspect of this work is the conversational tone O'Shea maintains throughout the book. A conversational tone studded with many a striking phrase, though, and some cleverly worded summations that speed the narrative along. Speaking of the difference between the works of the troubadors of Languedoc and the rest of the world at large, he writes: "While beyond the Loire and the Rhine noblemen were still stirred by the viscera dripping from Charlemagne's sword, their counterparts in the sunny south were learning to count the ways." When he introduces the first Jubilee, he describes it: "Pope Benedict VIII... declared that pilgrims to Rome that year would receive a raft of spiritual indulgence so ample as to render future damnation an utter fluke."A concise, readable book with a conversational tone and packed with wide-ranging and obscure facts. Very nice notes, too. And a bibliography referencing all the more scholarly works addressed by some of the more pedantic reviewers.

Couldn't put it down

This readable, scholarly work gives excellent background and detail of the Cathar religion, the culture of medieval Provence, and the Albigensian Crusade of the early 13th Century. Mr. O'Shea drew together an extensive and impressive bibliography of authorities for this work, including French language sources and Vatican and Dominican documents. He describes political and religious forces, personalities, and spiritual practices as well as details of battles in this tragic campaign that utterly smashed a prosperous, creative, and vital culture. He also details the origins and workings of the Inquisition, which broke the Cathar faith. I had previously read and enjoyed Zoe Oldenbourg's "Massacre at Montsegur." Mr. O'Shea uses newly discovered material to correct some of her conclusions. He describes Provence today and discusses of how notions, many of them distorted, of Cathar beliefs have been reinterpreted and carried forward. His notes and bibliography alone are worth the price of the book.

A Powerful Pagaent

I have spent a bit of time in the Languedoc region of France, but had only the most passing familiarity with the compelling history of the Cathar Rebellion. Thus, I was very pleased to find this book. Stephen O'Shea's stirring history of the politics of religion and morality in 13th-century Southwest France is an incisive, richly detailed, and beautifully written account of the Cathar's striking metaphysical revolt against the established church. The medieval Cathars, Mr. O'Shea informs us, preached a version of Christianity that privileged open-mindedness and tolerance. This heresy, and the support extended to the Cathars bythe powerful Count of Toulouse, posed too grave a threat to the vested interests of the Catholic Church, which ultimately, and perhaps inevitably, declared the Cathars heretics and brutally destroyed them as a people. Mr O'Shea's talents are many: this odd, little-known, but remarkably powerful slice of history is extensively researched and skillfuly rendered. Bravo, Mr. O'Shea, for this lovely and eminently readable book!