René
Weis.
The Yellow Cross: The Story of the Last Cathars 1290-1329.
Harmondsworth: Viking,
2000.
lv,453pp, 32 plates.
Hardback
ISBN 0670881627.
Publisher's
recommended price £20.00
In the
thirteenth
century, a group of heretics in south-west France, the Cathars, became
a serious threat to the Catholic church. Their fervently held dualistic
beliefs were an anathema to the established religious order. In several
waves of brutal repression, thousands of Cathars were killed, with many
being burnt at the stake. Yet so ardent was their faith that, early in
the fourteenth century, in a groundswell centred around the small
Occitan
village of Montaillou, the Cathars rose one final time.
Using
the breathtakingly
- and uniquely - detailed 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. He narrates a rich medieval tale of
faith,
adventure, sex and courage which - it is staggering to realize - is
true
in every detail.
People
with unforgettable
characters, from a highly sexed châtelaine to a double-dealing
priest,
a loquacious shepherd to a merciless bishop, The Yellow Cross is a
major
work of detection, scholarship and storytelling. It offers us a
remarkable,
almost miraculously vivid, reanimation of an otherwise lost world.
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