Catharism

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Cathars, a medieval European Christian sect accused of heresy. In 1215 Pope Innocent III called the greatest meeting of Catholic minds for a hundred years. He hoped that the Fourth Lateran Council would represent the crowning glory of a Papacy that was more powerful than ever before, and it laid down decrees to standardise Christian belief across the whole of Western Europe and heal the papal schism of a generation before. But despite the wealth and power of the Vatican, all was not as it should have been in the Catholic world; Jerusalem was lost, the Crusades were failing, and in the regions of Europe the spectre of heresy moved over the land. It loomed largest in the wealthy Languedoc region of Southern France, where celibate vegetarians called Cathars were proving more popular than Jesus. The Pope moved against the Cathars but why was Catharism such a threat, what were its beliefs and what was the intellectual and spiritual climate that made the high middle ages the era of the heretic?With Malcolm Barber, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Reading; Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval History at Queen Mary, University of London; Euan Cameron, Professor of Modern History at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Malcolm Barber No other episodes
  Professor of Medieval History at the University of Reading
• Miri Rubin 12 episodes
  Professor of Medieval History at Queen Mary, University of London
• Euan Cameron No other episodes
  Professor of Modern History at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Related episodes

• The 12th Century Renaissance
  
  20 Oct, 2016 900 History
• The Schism
  
  16 Oct, 2003 270 History of Christianity
• The Pelagian Controversy
  
  21 Apr, 2011 270 History of Christianity
• Toleration
  
  20 May, 2004 270 History of Christianity
• Third Crusade
  
  29 Nov, 2001 940 History of Europe
• The Spanish Inquisition
  
  22 Jun, 2006 940 History of Europe
• Wyclif and the Lollards
  
  16 Jun, 2011 270 History of Christianity
• The Dissolution of the Monasteries
  
  27 Mar, 2008 940 History of Europe
• The Knights Templar
  
  6 Oct, 2022 940 History of Europe
• The Jesuits
  
  18 Jan, 2007 270 History of Christianity

---

Programme ID: p005488v

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005488v

Auto-category: 270.6 (Christian sects)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. In 1215, Pope Innocent III called the greatest meeting of Catholic minds for 100 years.