Catharism, a medieval offshoot of Gnostic Christianity, burned through the Catholic landscape of 13th-century Europe as swiftly as a plague. To the Catholic Church, it was very nearly as welcome. By ...

Wendy Orent on a cathartic tale of religious persecution in the 14th century Catharism, a mediaeval offshoot of Gnostic Christianity, burned through the Catholic landscape of 13th-century Europe as ...

The Cathar heretics of Languedoc in France, and their terrible fate, have fascinated people for centuries. The Cathars were dissident, pacifist Christians who believed that an evil deity had created ...

Reporting from Montpellier, FranceReporting from Montpellier, France — They lived simple lives of austerity and abstinence and suffered horrifying deaths, cut down by marauding armies and burned at ...

Making a modern reader care about a 13th-century heretical sect and its destruction is not an easy task, but journalist and translator Stephen O’Shea manages it effortlessly in his new book. The ...

THERE’S nothing like a dose of medieval barbarism to give you a hearty appetite. Under the noonday sun, I was scrambling up a rugged mountain trail toward four stone towers called the Châteaux de ...

The Albigensian Crusade, the first of its kind against Europeans and Christians, was formally launched by Pope Innocent III in 1209, ushering in an era of abattoir Christianity in the Languedoc that ...

Rachael Kohn: They were the most feared of mediaeval Christian sects: they were the Cathars. Hello, and welcome to The Ark, I'm Rachael Kohn. Their territory stretched from Italy to France and the ...

In the Middle Ages, Catharism - a Christian sect accused of heresy – thrived in the heart of the French Pyrenees. Its indelible imprint can still be seen today: perched on a rock some 1,200 metres ...