THE CATHARS AND THE ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE

HIS compelling new book is about
the extraordinary crusade launched
in 1209 by Pope Innocent III against the
Cathar heretics of the Languedoc.

Telling the story of the development of
the 'heresy, the attack launched against
it, and the progress of the crusade and its
aftermath, the author also reveals much
about the social and political structure of
the society of the Languedoc in the 12th
and 13th centuries. He convincingly traces
the connection between religious dissent
and social structures and shows how war
was used to change both; so bringing this
unique area more closely under the
control of the French state, and the
Catholic church.

Opening with a fascinating account of
the 'Cathars' themselves, their beliefs
and their practises, Costen goes on to give
a readable account of the horrors of the
war and the brutality of the inquisition
which followed it.

For anyone who has seen the ruined
castles standing on the forbidding hill-
tops of the Corbieres Mountains, or been
struck, like the author, by the fairy-tale'
turreted towns and castle of the region,
this book tells the tragic story behind
these stone memorials.

MICHAEL COSTEN is Senior Lecturer
in Adult Education at the University of Bristol