Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages

by Janina Ramírez

Woolworkers contributed to one of the most commercialised sectors of the medieval period. Textile production could create income and social mobility for those restricted by serfdom. What’s more, as the Bayeux Tapestry embroiderers revealed, weaving was dominated by women. While Cathars lived simple lives of austerity, they still required money for food and materials. Weaving was a popular way of earning it, as attested to in chronicles, depositions and other records. It could be done by women on a small scale in the home.

but the connection between the textile industry and Cathars coined the phrase ‘weavers

into heretics.’47 It afforded an option for those living outside of societal norms to provide for themselves and their families.

Cathar women could be hidden in plain sight, as with Raymonda of Mazerac. The prioress at the Abbey La Lecune, she was reported as a heretic after she questioned the nuns on the Virgin Mary. The deposition states she asked, ‘whether the Blessed Virgin had really suckled Jesus physically and suffered giving birth like other women.’

Perhaps the most famous female Cathar was Esclarmonde de Foix. She was a member of one of the most important families in the Languedoc, and ruled Foix as regent when her husband died in 1204. Esclarmonde wielded great power during her lifetime. She witnessed documents alongside her brother, like the settlement in March 1198 between the Cistercians of Boulbonne and the count of Foix, so we know she had enough secular influence to sign charters.

To the disdain of the predominantly male council, Esclarmonde was invited to present on Cathar beliefs. She took the stage but was heckled by the Catholic representative, Brother Étienne de Misérichorde: ‘Go, Madam, to spin your distaff. It is not appropriate for you to speak in a debate of this kind.’51 The misogynistic response has enflamed centuries of commentators, who see in Esclarmonde a proto-feminist. Indeed, she has developed legendary status in the Pays Cathare, even though it is difficult to gather facts such as where and when she died. Her involvement in a council and her derogatory treatment by a member of the clergy highlights both the positions to which Cathar women could rise, and the destruction their reputations could suffer at the hands of the orthodox church.

Her life was put on this hard course when, in 1208 at the age of seven, she and her sister Peironne met two women in dark clothes at their

grand castle in Montauban. Invited by their mother, these women spoke loudly about God and commanded the respect of those in the room. Arnaude recalled how her mother bowed deeply before them three times then asked them to bless her, make her a ‘good Christian’ and lead her to a ‘good end’.

Here she and her sister had to promise to eat no meat, eggs or dairy, to never swear, to live a celibate life and to remain loyal to their beliefs even in the face of death by fire, water or any form.

But in May 1211 atrocities were once again close. In the same town, the local castle was attacked. The defence was led by the owner and lady of the castle, Giralda, who commanded the troops and held back Simon de Montfort’s forces for two months.54 When Giralda and her soldiers finally capitulated the punishment was extreme. Sources report that 80 knights were hung, while 400 heretics were burned. Giralda herself was thrown down a well and stoned to death.

In the 1220s, as the Albigensian Crusade raged on in the south, Parisian manuscripts were emerging which presented biblical scenes with allegorical interpretations in contemporary settings. Known as Moralised Bibles, they feature a range of acts considered

sinful by the church, including lesbianism and sodomy.58 They have been described as ‘windows opening onto medieval society of the time’, but rather than representing reality, it is evident that they were cautionary images, designed to put fear in the hearts of the Parisian nobility that evil was bearing down on them.59 Included in the thousands of images are heretics, who are often compared unfavourably to Jews and accused of perverse behaviour. In a representation of Balthazar feasting with the treasures stolen from the temple of Jerusalem, two couples are shown embracing. Labelled ‘heretics’, the woman looks into a mirror while engaged in a clinch. Opposite, a young monk embraces an older man. Heretics are painted as bad people, displaying the deadly sins of vanity and lustfulness, but throughout these manuscripts there are many different types of evil and subversive entities. The Moralising Bibles present a thirteenth-century world full of deviance, threats, moral ambiguity and sin.

One representation is particularly distinctive and unusual, depicting a scene of heretics with darkened faces kissing the hind quarters of cats and venerating the creatures. While bizarre to us, the origin of this legend lies in the writings of medieval writer Gautier Map. He described a secret rite performed in darkness, where an enormous black cat was hung by a cord in the middle of a room, and those around it must put their

mouths to the animal’s anus.60 Map was suggesting that heretics performed deviant, or even devilish, ceremonies. This accusation was reiterated by Alain of Lille, a French theologian writing at the beginning of the thirteenth century, where he explained the name ‘Cathar’ came from the word ‘chat/cat’. He insinuated that these heretics worshiped the animal as a manifestation of Lucifer. A more convincing reason for the name ‘Cathar’ may lie in the Greek word ‘katarus’, which means ‘pure’. But Alain bastardised it with his derogatory manipulation.

The Moralised Bibles themselves don’t use the term ‘cathar’, instead referring more generally to ‘heretics’. These were the bogeymen of the medieval period; you wouldn’t know if a heretic walked among you, or entered your home, ...

Master Raoul of Narbonne was leading the inquisition in this region and recruited a woman called Marquèse de Prouille as part of his spying efforts. Coming from a local family that was recognised as heretical, Marquèse was easily able to infiltrate Cathar gatherings.61 Raoul gave her money to supply the Cathars with food, and under this guise she sent reports back to the inquisitor. He followed up on her information three times, attempting to capture individuals in the act of heretical practice at the homes Marquèse described.62 But either she was a bad spy, or she was double-bluffing and protecting those she was ordered to betray by giving him incorrect information. He was only able to make one arrest based on her reports, despite handing over large sums for her assistance. He hoped Marquèse would be useful as a spy because of the high status in which women were held within Cathar communities.

Perhaps most influential was a text published by SS member and historian to the Nazi regime, Otto Rahn. Often cited as the inspiration for Indiana Jones, Rahn is a much-maligned historical figure, but one of his legacies is the glut of publications that connected the Cathars and Montségur to legends of the Holy Grail. His book Kreuzzug gegen den Gral (Crusade Against the Grail), published in 1933, caught the attention of Heinrich Himmler.

The book has since been widely criticised and recognised as an originator of mainstream conspiracy theories, as well as held up as a source of ideological romanticism for the reactionary far right.66