History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 185, the crusade against the Cathars, the trial of Bernard Delicia.

Hello again.

Last week we examined the Dark Years of 1309 and 1310, which saw the Ote Brothers and the Cathar

hierarchy in the county of Foire arrested by the Inquisition and executed.

Both Jeffrey Darby, head Inquisitor of Carcasson, and Bernard Ghee, head Inquisitor of Carcasson and Bernard Guy, head Inquisitor for Toulouse, were present in

Toulouse for the execution by burning of Pierre Ote. And for the two men, the death of one of the Cathar Perfect who had revived

the religion in the South must have felt like an ending of sorts.

Well, it was and it wasn't. The Inquisition didn't consider its work to be

complete with the death of the Odie brothers. There were still Cathars in the county of

Fwa, even if their numbers were dwindling. In Monteiu, for instance, a significant

portion of the residents of the village are still of the Cathar Faith, as is the priest of the town.

So the Inquisition rolled on.

The year 1314 was an interesting one for the kingdom of France.

King Philip the fourth, with the assistance of his right-hand man Giorm Nogare and the compliant French

Pope Clement the 5th, had for a number of years been contriving to gain control of the Knights Templar in particular.

The Knights Templar had grown into an astonishingly wealthy and powerful institution,

and with the loss of Acre in the Middle East back in 1291 spelling the end of the Middle Eastern Latin Christian possessions, Philip the fair had

the idea that the military power and the wealth of the orders would really be better off

serving the French crown than the church.

The elderly and sickly Pope Clement the 5th, who was by this time totally under the thumb of the

French king, seemed to agree.

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