The Cathars: an invention of the Church?
Excerpt from the France CULTURE radio program -The Factory of History-, by Emmanuel Laurentin
11/25/2016
Considering that the only historical sources attesting to the organization of the Cathar church come from the reports of the Inquisition and that the facts reported are not cross-referenced by any document or source from the Cathar communities themselves, historians of the last thirty years have questioned the information in the reports of the Inquisition, which could be considered as propaganda justifying a French crusade within its own country.
The voice of Robert I. Moore can be heard in english in this interview
"Today, as part of our partnership with the journal l'Histoire, we will discuss the Cathars with one of the leading specialists in the history of heresies,
Robert I. Moore, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at Newcastle University."
The history of the Cathars is the source of much disagreement among academic historians.
Long considered a true Church born in the Balkans and later established in the West, the Cathars, initially persecuted by the Crusades and later by the Inquisition, are a subject whose historical interpretation changed in the mid-1950s. Today, some medievalists, notably Robert I. Moore, offer a different vision of the Cathars. They are not heretics but rather men who wished to live their religion in a framework as close as possible to the simple and humble lifestyle of Jesus and the Apostles.
Close to the Gregorian Reform, opposed to Nicolaitanism and Simonism, yet often persecuted by the Church. But then why have the Cathars always been considered heretics?
What has research shown?
What can we say about the Cathars today?
A program co-hosted with Valérie Hannin, editorial director of the journal "l’Histoire"
Robert I. Moore is dead
this Friday, February 7, 2025
A specialist in heresies and global history, medievalist Robert I. Moore died on February 5, 2025.