>>5778302The Cathars, a sect of dualist christian whose primary domains were in southern France, in particular the county of Toulouse which lay on the border with the kingdom of Aragon. The Cathars first appeared somewhere around the midpoint of the 12th century. Initially it was spread out through western Europe above the Pyrenees but the feudal order managed to keep their numbers small. In southern France on the other hand they gained a sizable following.
They were helped in this cause by the local nobility, who usually were looking for a way to subvert the authority of the French king. Yet it was not to be, Pope Innocent III declared a crusade against the sect for heresy. A cause the French king wholeheartedly supported as an effort to seize the lands of his unruly vassals. It was always to be an effort in vain for the Cathars. After being driven from their holds and being massacred by the crusaders multiple times, the sect was more or less dead by the 14th century. With Cathar briefly becoming a term to refer to people with ancestry from the region before passing into the annals of history. Not until the Hussites would there be such a large insurrection of heretics.
Today if one wished to learn more about the Cathars it was recommended to travel down to the region that they were most famous for Occitania, as matter of fact the Occitanian cross is often used to represent the Cathars in the arts.
It looked like you would need to travel to the Franco-Spanish border regions if you wished to investigate further. Still, Toulouse itself hosts a rather large university, founded in 1229 which would have a nice library and archive to dig through, as for the field work that might happen..well you're not on the train yet, so there is always time to prepare.
>I will start to make preparations for travelling tomorrow>I should perhaps consult the other books first>Write-in 