EP 001 | Who Were the Cathars?

The name most people use for the medieval Good Christians of Languedoc first appears in a hostile sermon written in the Rhineland around 1163. In this opening episode, Rob traces where the word "Cathar" came from, sets it beside the names used in a surviving Occitan ritual and in inquisition testimony (good men, good Christians, the Church of God), and lays out the live scholarly debate over whether "Catharism" was an organized church or a label imposed from outside. We end with Jesus' question in Mark 8 and an honest note on why a modern project calls itself New Cathars.

Sources: Eckbert of Schönau, Sermones contra Catharos (c. 1163); Occitan Cathar Ritual (Lyon PA 36, RIALTO ed.); Bernard Gui, Inquisitor's Manual; Jacques Fournier register (SJSU trans.); Book of the Two Principles; A. Sennis (ed.), Cathars in Question (2016). Full source ledger available on request.