SC - Languedoc/Cathar

[Bethany Public Library]

I wrote:
>Hallo all.
>
>I've recently become fascinated with the Cathar story, and am wondering if
>anyone has any clue where to look for a resource on their food. It must
have
>been a fascinating food culture since the Cathars came from Asia Minor to
>France by way of Germany and Italy, and then were tossed out in the early
>13th century to settle near present day Bosnia.
And his grace replied:
I believe you are confusing the path followed by the doctrine with an
actual mass migration of people. As far as I know, almost all of the
Cathar's were simply French or Italian, converted to that particular
heresy.

*What source suggests that they were actually people who had *migrated
*from Asia Minor?

I'll be happy to let you know as soon as I can read the books in their
entirety. But you have a point, since from what I've read so far, the
Cathars purportedly preferred conversion to copulation as a method for
gaining adherants ;)


>  They were purportedly
>vegetarian,

*The perfecti or the rest of the believers?

Again, a good point. Having read a small amount, I'll have to get back about
that as well. It's entirely possible, given the nature of the faith, that
there was no cohesive cuisine. I think I'd like to know one way or another,
though, given the limits of what it's possible to find via literature and
archaeology.
However, the following quote might help:
"Originating in Asia Minor and brought to Europe by way of Bulgaria, the
rise of Catharism prompted the first recorded burnings at the stake in
France, led to the establishment of the papal Inquisition and the Dominican
order of monks who conducted it, and caused the deaths of untold thousands
of men, women, and children over a three-century period from about 1200 to
1459, when the official Cathar church was outlawed in its final stronghold,
Bosnia. Lambert writes with dry authority on the curious history of this
doctrine and official response to it." --Gregory McNamee, refering to the
book The Cathars (The Peoples of Europe) by Malcolm Lambert
Paperback - 368 pages (June 1998)
Blackwell Pub; ISBN:  063120959X

>with heavy ties to the Mohammedans and other faiths,

*What is the source for that?

I should have also mentioned Zaroastrianism and Judaism. However, the
following quote, which appears in a review for the book The Albigensian
Crusade by Joseph R Strayer (Paperback - 283 pages (July 1992) Univ of
Michigan Pr; ISBN: 0472064762 ), and the knowledge that Cathars in Languedoc
acted as a shelter for other religions in the area. Religious tolerance
seemed to be unusually high for them, compared to Catholicism, according to
what I've read so far.

"Languedoc, lay at the end of a main trade route that ran through Italy and
into the East, and by 1200, the area was more like Italy with it's
independent cities based on commercial wealth, than the feudal north with
it's huge rural estates owned by landed nobility. New ideas and new people
settled in Occitania, bringing diverse religious practices. In addition to
the Cathars, the area was home to Jews, Mohammadens, and Waldensians. Roman
Catholic clergy soon found their limited authority challenged, and one thing
led to another until the Pope launched two crusades to eliminate "heretical
faiths" that infested Occitania. Most of Strayers's account is about the
subsequent Albigensian crusades (Albi was one of the "heretical" cities)."

Of course, if you have some good sources on the subject, I'm sure several of
us would appreciate the information. And if you'd care to share your
insights, if any, on that culture's dining habits, again, the educational
nature of this list would be served.

As for me, I think my next purchase is going to be:
The History of the Albigensian Crusade : Peter of Les-Vaux-De-Cernay's
Historia Albigensis by W. A. Sibly (Translator), M. D. Sibly (Translator)
Boydell & Brewer; ISBN: 0851158072 ,
which is actually a monk's account of the crusade written while it was going
on, translated into English.

I'm having trouble locating information about the cathars NOT related to the
crusade, essentially pre-crusade. Any thoughts?


Thanks

Aoife