God's Heretics: The Albigensian Crusade

by Aubrey Burl

This title provides a vivid account of the way the Crusade and its legacy turned and twisted for over a hundred years. It focuses on the personalities on sides, their motivations and objectives, creating for the modern reader an overwhelming impression of the powerful beliefs that drove persecutor and victim.

Genres: History, Medieval, Christianity

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Larkin H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty average but hard to find books on the Cathars so worthwhile for anyone looking into the subject. Also the book covers nearly all of the Languedoc so for anyone traveling to the region, as was my case, it is almost certain that villages or castles on the itinerary will be mentioned. The Cathars, their relation to Catholic France, and their ultimate eradication (or maybe not, if you read enough Dan Brown...) is a confusing yet fascinating story of religion and bloodshed.

[Coleen Dailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an interesting read about a little known part of religious and political history. Thought of as the first Crusade of Christian against Christian, this war lasted 100 years and began with knights and battles and the destruction of much life and property and ended with many people imprisoned and tortured by the Inquisition. The book is a little dry as it spends a lot of time on logistics, geography and reference to what the castles or cities look like now instead of time on the people which I would have preferred. This is the second book I've read about the slaughter at Montsegur and while I believe it was a horrible thing for the church to do, I am less sympathetic to the Cathars than I was before.