Massacre at Montsegur

Massacre at Montsegur: A History of the Albigensian Crusade  by Zoé Oldenbourg, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997. 

The Cathars

The Cathars believed that Jesus was the son of God, and they believed in the Bible. The Cathars believed that they were closer to the original Christianity than was the the Roman Catholic Church, which, they believed, had deviated from Jesus and the Bible. One of the primary divergences was that the Cathars did not believe that God created the physical world. They believed that Satan had created the physical world. The Cathars opposed the Cross as a symbol of Christianity. They believed that Jesus never had a material body and never suffered crucifixion. The Perfecti were the leaders of the Catharist Church. The Perfecti lived ascetic lives, travelling in pairs, preaching. The Cathars lived mainly in Languedoc, in southwestern France, and in Provence, in southeastern France. The capital city of Languedoc was Toulouse. France, as the large, unified country we have now, did not exist then. 

Heretics

On 10 March 1208 Pople Innocent III, leader of the Roman Catholic Church, called for a crusade against the heretics in southern France. The main group of heretics was the Cathars. The Roman Catholic Church also persecuted a smaller group of heretics called the Waldensians. This sect was founded by Peer Waldo of Lyons. They did not believe in priests, baptism, and the Eucharist. Roman Catholics who protected heretics also became targets of the crusade.

Inquisitors

The Pope found his inquisitors from the Dominican order of monks. The inquisitors travelled with bodyguards and helpers. They had the power to sentence heretics to being burned at the stake. The usual legal rules protecting defendants were set aside. The inquisitor was both judge and prosecutor. The defendant did not have the right to a lawyer. If a lawyer attempted to defend the accused, he himself was likely to be accused of heresy. If you voluntarily came forward and admitted to being a heretic, it was unlikely that you would be sentenced to death. If you also accused others of heresy, your sentence would be reduced. The inquisitors wanted to know where the Cathar perfecti were hiding. 

Montségur

In 1243 at th Council of Béziers the Catholic leaders decided to attack the fortress of Montségur, which was giving sanctuary to the assassins. The siege of the fortress of Montségur at the top of an isolated mountain in the Pyrenees started in May 1243. The leader of the siege was Hugues des Arcis. Hugues des Arcis was Seneschal of Carcassone. Sugues hired Basque mountaineer mercenaries to scale the mountain in the Pyrenees. He also had French knights. The French Crusaders managed to climb up the eastern face of the mountain and attack the fortress with a stone-gun. In March 1244 Montségur surrendered. Those who refused to convert to Roman Catholicism were burned at the stake. About two hundred of them.