The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade (Manchester Medieval Classics)

Rating:
Summary: The most concise treatment yet available
Review: Michael Costen has produced the most useful and concise work yet available on this topic. The bibliography is exhaustive and the treatment synthesizes the political, economic, and spiritual aspects of the subject. I feel, however, that Costen fails to treat theoretical matters of deviance and persecution (though the facts speak for themselves). For those interested in a more theoretical work on persecution in medieval society, I suggest R.I. Moore's FORMATION OF A PERSECUTING SOCIETY. Nevertheless, this book is the best at setting the Albigensian Crusade in its historical context relative to Languedoc.

Rating:
Summary: excellent up-to-date summary
Review: Much in the manner of an earlier offering from Jonathan Sumption, Costen supplies with a concise and up-to-date summary of the origins and effects of the Albigensian crusade. Those looking for romance and fancy should perhaps look elsewhere, but for anyone wishing to develop their interest in this fascinating episode could do much worse than buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: A disgraceful whitewash of the Catholic Church's crimes
Review: This book is a disgraceful whitewash of the Catholic Church's crimes against humanity. It begins by minimizing the social accomplishments of the society of the Languedoc and goes on to mischaracterize the Cathars, both distortions to mask the real magnitude of the Church's actions. The book does a good job citing all the pro-church publications available, but neglects to consider more balanced sources, omitting well-known historical works - even omitting positive information from the church itself. For example, St. Bernard of Clairveaux, following his own pre-crusade evalaution of the Cathars in the Languedoc concluded, "No sermons are more Christian than theirs, and their morals are pure." Despite its one-sided view, the book can't hide that the fact that the Church murdered tens of thousands by sword, thousands more by burning at the stake (after appropriate torture of course), destroyed the economy of the whole region, and reduced the culture to a level from which it would never fully recover. The book does it's best to draw attention away from the Church's real reason for the crusade: its paranoid fear that Catholicism might be displaced by Catharism. Astonishingly, the author has the gaul to conclude that somehow the people of the Languedoc simply evaluated Catharism versus Catholicism on their relative spiritual merits, and ultimately chose the latter. The author apparently doesn't seem to feel that the people of the Languedoc might have been influenced in any way by a 35-year genocidal war followed by 60 years of relentless inquisition. Other conclusions are of the same cloth. These transgressions might be easier to tolerate if the book were better written, but it is unfortunately very dense, sluggish, and lacking any narrative spark. The small print on high-glare paper is also very difficult to read. If you are already deeply familiar with the issues covered in this book, and are willing to read between the lines, there is enough anecdotal information to make it worthwhile. But, it you are seeking a book that provides a balanced introductory presentation, you'll have to look elsewhere.