The Friar of Carcassonne: The Last Days of the Cathars

Description

Nearly a century had passed since Languedoc had been put to the sword in the Albigensian Crusade, but the stain of Catharism still lay on the land. Any accusation of Catharism invited peril. But repression bred resentment and it was in Carcassonne that resistance began to stir. In 1300 a great orator emerged who brought together the currents of resistance. Three years later the terrible prisons were stormed and the inmates set free. The orator was a Franciscan friar, Bernard Delicieux. The forces ranged against Delicieux included the ruthless Pope Boniface VII, the Machiavellian French King Philip IV and the grand inquisitor of Toulouse Bernard Gui (the villain of The Name of the Rose). This magnificent book, which forms a kind of sequel to Stephen O'Shea's bestselling The Perfect Heresy, tells his inspiring life and tragic story.

Stephen O'Shea, for many years a journalist in Paris and New York, contributed to a wide variety of publications on the arts and translated French feature films. The Friar of Carcassonne is his third book of medieval history. Previous books also published by Profile include A Perfect Heresy and Sea of Faith. He currently lives with his two daughters in Providence, Rhode Island. stephenosheaonline.com.

O'Shea's vivid and evocative story of the extraordinary and moving career of Bernard Delicieux rests on thorough and wide-ranging knowledge and shrewd historical judgement -- R. I. Moore, author of 'The Formation of a Persecuting Society'