Little Foxes in the Lord's Vineyard: The Crusading Origins of Catharism in Languedoc
[Thesis]
Duncan, Heather Elizabeth
Traver, Andrew
Southeastern Louisiana University
2019
106 p.
M.A.
Southeastern Louisiana University
2019
The origins of Languedocian Catharism have proved as elusive as the movement itself. While a rich body of sources exist for the Inquisition against Catharism, the texts remain silent on the movement's origins and transmission to the west. Historians have variously argued that Catharism was an indigenous movement of Europe, an import from the east, or even a construct in the minds of Inquisitors. Catharism as an eastern import has remained the favored conclusion. Theories on the origins of the Cathars abound, though scholarly consensus has generally favored it as an import from eastern dualism. The traditional narrative holds that missionaries brought Bogomilism, the dualism of southeastern Europe, to western Europe, where it rapidly spread and developed into Catharism. Others insist that merchants traded their heresy alongside their wares, while some point to pilgrims and even troubadours as the carriers. Anselm of Alexandria, a thirteenth-century Italian Inquisitor, states that returning French crusaders brought the heresy to France, and while several scholars therefore point to crusaders as the transmitters, there is little agreement as to which crusade Anselm refers as well as how the heresy made its way to Languedoc. Historians generally agree that Catharism first appeared in Languedoc in the twelfth century, with the exception of a few who argue that the scattered heresies of the early eleventh century mark its beginnings. The eleventh-century heresies were not dualistic and several of the cases have heavy political undertones. The eleventh century does, however, hold the key to the origins of Catharism, though not where most usually theorize. Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095. This was a watershed moment for the east and the west, and the result was an explosion of cultural transmission. Dualism in the west suddenly appeared after the First Crusade, and the areas it permeated happened to be the areas of crusader recruitment. This thesis argues that crusaders on the First Crusade encountered eastern dualism and subsequently transferred it back to their homeland in Languedoc themselves.