The Cathar Trail
From the Mediterranean to the foot of the Pyrenees, the notorious Cathar trail
Rises the course of history between Aude and Ariège
Through moors and broom, through vineyards and villages this fragment of history
Unveils by its "citadels of vertigo" the life of the "Bonshommes" and their seat.
At the beginning of the Middle Ages they tasted this same perfume of wind,
Listened to these same songs of birds under the sun Occitan
In search of spiritual gold, leaving no other traces of yesteryear,
Between Corbières and Piedmont Pyrenees, that castles ruin.
The tramontana, the cers and the autan have blown centuries of indifference
On these ruins, where the intransigent mysticism of the "Parfait" message,
Through the Cathar dualism between the kingdom of good and the world of concrete evil,
They have classed them among the heretics and devoted as such to the stake of carelessness.
Living around the year 1200 according to the strict principles of the Gospel,
They had sufficiently weakened the positions of the able Roman Church,
For the Papacy to launch a major operation to the Ariège,
Conducted by the Frenchman Simon de Montfort, the Crusade of the Albigenses.
It required sieges, bloody battles, pyres of the Inquisition,
For Rome to overcome Catharism after a century of punishment,
During which the Occitans attached to their freedom of conscience,
They fought to defend the "common good" with a virile distrust.
In spite of the capital influence of Catharism on the Languedocian manners,
Today there is nothing left of these ancient beliefs and practices,
Nevertheless, the foundations of the reforming will of Puritanism,
Will find themselves centuries later in Protestantism.
L’ARIÉ….JOIE