Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Medieval Quercy: 2 (Heresy and Inquisition in the Middle Ages) - Hardcover

Makes a thought-provoking and rich contribution to a complex subject. FRENCH HISTORY

[Provides] a new model for approaching the subject. CRUSADES

Highly recommendable reading for all who are interested in medieval heresy. SEHEPUNKTE

Tightly focused and highly detailed. [...] Anyone interested in heresy and its repression will find this book essential reading. CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW

Heresy came late to Quercy. . . . Taylor is concerned to work out why this should have been so and brings to the task a thorough knowledge of the sources and the region and great acuity and intellectual tenacity. SPECULUM

The medieval county of Quercy in Languedoc lay between the Dordogne and the Toulousain in south-west France; it played a significant role in the history of Catharism, of the Albigensian crusade launched against the heresy in 1209, and of the subsequent inquisition. Although Cathars had come to dominate religious life elsewhere in Languedoc during the course of the twelfth century, the chronology of heresy was different in Quercy. In the late twelfth century, nearby abbeys were still the main focus of devotional activity; inquisitors' discoveries in the 1240s point to the previous twenty years as the period when Catharism and also the Waldensian heresy took a firm hold, most dramatically in its far north.
This study deals with the cultural and political origins of the religious change. Its careful analysis offers a significant re-evaluation of the nature and social significance of religious dissidence, and of its protection and persecution in both the history and historiography of Catharism.

Dr Claire Taylor is Associate Professor, School of History, University of Nottingham.