The Cathars are one of the most famous heretical movements of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. They infiltrated the highest ranks of society and

Catharism was the most successful heresy of the Middle Ages. Flourishing principally in the Languedoc and Italy, the Cathars taught that the world is evil and m

Without lifting a sword, the Cathars posed a threat to Catholicism greater than the Muslims or Jews--or so the Church believed. The Cathars believed that matter

The question of the reality of Cathars and other heresies is debated in this provocative collection.

Some of the most portentous events in medieval history—the Cathar crusade, the persecution and mass burnings of heretics, the papal inquisition—fall between