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The Cathars
new mini hardback format

Sean Martin

Publication: January 2005
Extent: 160 pp
Format: Crown Octavo (186 x 124mm)
Price: 9.99
ISBN: 1904048331
EAN: 9781904048336
13 Digit ISBN: 978-1-904048-33-6
Binding: hardback
Market: history
Rights: World
BIC Code:

  • Gripping, tragic true story of a peaceful sect who were wiped out in Europe’s first genocide, the Albigensian Crusade.
  • Equal appeal to the History and New Age/Mind Body Spirit Market
  • First complete history of the Cathars for a general readership, including sections on the Cathars in Italy and Bosnia. Earlier books for a general readership only covered one aspect, while other books are aimed at an academic audience only
  • Cathar myths will also be examined. The sect were long suspected, for instance, of possessing a fabulous treasure – thought by some to be the Holy Grail – and the book looks at both the pros and cons of the less substantiated side of the Cathar story

Catharism was the most successful heresy of the Middle Ages. Flourishing principally in the Languedoc and Italy, the Cathars taught that the world is evil and must be transcended through a simple life of prayer, work, fasting and non-violence. They believed themselves to be the heirs of the true heritage of Christianity going back to apostolic times, and completely rejected the Catholic Church and all its trappings, regarding it as the Church of Satan; Cathar services and ceremonies, by contrast, were held in fields, barns and in people’s homes.

Finding support from the nobility in the fractious political situation in southern France, the Cathars also found widespread popularity among peasants and artisans. And again unlike the Church, the Cathars respected women, and women played a major role in the movement. Alarmed at the success of Catharism, the Church founded the Inquisition and launched the Albigensian Crusade to exterminate the heresy. While previous Crusades had been directed against Muslims in the Middle East, the Albigensian Crusade was the first Crusade to be directed against fellow Christians, and was also the first European genocide. With the fall of the Cathar fortress of Montségur in 1244, Catharism was largely obliterated, although the faith survived into the early fourteenth century.

Today, the mystique surrounding the Cathars is as strong as ever, and Sean Martin recounts their story and the myths associated with them in this lively and gripping book.

Sean Martin is a filmmaker, poet and writer. He has written books on The Knights Templar, Alchemy and Alchemists, The Gnostics, The Cathars and Andrei Tarkovsky and New Waves in Cinema. He has also directed the critically acclaimed feature film The Notebooks of Cornelius Crow.

For a review copy or further information, please contact Chris Burrows PR
on 0161 445 6635 or email chris-burrows@o2.co.uk

Distribution UK: Turnaround, 3 Olympia Trading Estate, Coburg Rd, London N22 6TZ.
Pocket Essentials, PO Box 394, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 1XJ
Tel/Fax 01582 761264         http://www.pocketessentials.co.uk