>I should know more about this, given my interest in things Occitan,
>but what is the current state of knowledge about Catharism? I know
>that most of our info comes from Inquistition documents, and what
>the Cathars' opponents said about them. Is this all that is extant? I
>find it difficult to believe that all Cathar writings (if they
>existed) could have been destroyed, even by the persistance of the
>Inquisition. "Heretical" movements are not that easy to silence,
>especially one as widespread as Catharism.
Dear Tim,
I myself am no expert for Catharism, but when interpreted cautiously even
documents of the Inquisition, especially those which record examinations,
can reveal more about Cathars and their doctrine than only "what their
opponents said about them". Furthermore, several of their own texts have
survived, like translations from the Bible (one of the first to study them
was Samuel Berger, Romania 19.1890, p.505-561, a more recent though not
really recent study would be Jean Robert Smeets, _Joden en Catharen_,
Malmberg 1966, as a text edition see L. Cle/dat, _Le Nouveau Testament
traduit au XIIIme sie\cle en langue provenc,ale, suivi d'un rituel cathare_,
Paris 1887, repr. 1968), or Giovanni de Lugio's _Liber de duobus principiis_
(from the region of Brescia, 2nd half 13th cent., ed. together with a
"fragment du rituel cathare" by A. Dondaine, Roma 1939, more recently edited
by C. Thouzellier, Sources Chre/tiennes 198.1973), or the _Interrogatio
Johannis_ of Lombard origins but circulating also in France and confiscated
by the Inquisition of Carcassone (ed. Edina Bozo/ki, _Le livre secret des
Cathares, "Interrogatio Johannis". Apocryphe d'origine bogomile, Paris:
Beauchesne, 1980 [= Textes Dossiers Documents, 2]), or the _Tractatus
catharus_ (which is either a work of a Cathar or a non-Cathar compilation
about Catharism) preserved in Durand de Huesca's _Liber contra Manicheos_
(sorry, I have no more precise reference at hand). There are probably more
such texts which I myself am not aware of.
Sincerely,
Otfried Lieberknecht
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