Montsegur

Jerome V. Lofgren

Description

"Love in the time of the inquisition."

Montsegur in March AD 1244 was the scene of great courage in the face of over-whelming French Forces of 10,000 men in arms. Two hundred Christians were held up in a fortress high on the top of a mountain, defended by 150 knights and footmen. During the nine months of siege, Knight Del Congost and Lady Marie Magdalana live and loved. In the end, all 200 Christians were burned to death in a fagot stockade but that was not the end of the story. Modern consequences continue to be felt.

Sujets

• Holocaust
• Montsegur
• The Holocaust
• Gallia Aquitania
• Bon Homme County, South Dakota
• Holy Grail
• Catharism
• Liste des espèces de Star Wars
• Erotica
• Knight
• Aquitania
• Romance
• Torture
• Fiction
• Inquisition
• Holocauste

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 13 décembre 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781469747989
• Langue: English

Extrait

MONTSEGUR

Love in the time of the Inquisition
Jerome V. Lofgren
Authors Choice Press
San Jose New York Lincoln Shanghai
 
Montsegur
Love in the time of the Inquisition
 
All Rights Reserved © 2000 by JVL Alaska, Inc.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.
 
Authors Choice Press
an imprint of iUniverse.com, Inc.
 
For information address:
iUniverse.com, Inc.
5220 S 16th, Ste. 200
Lincoln, NE 68512
www.iuniverse.com
 
 
ISBN: 978-1-469-74798-9 (ebook)
ISBN: 0-595-16538-9
 
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  
CHAPTER ONE  
CHAPTER TW O  
CHAPTER THREE  
CHAPTER FOUR  
CHAPTER FIVE  
CHAPTER SIX  
CHAPTER SEVEN  
CHAPTER EIGHT  
CHAPTER NINE  
CHAPTER TEN  
CHAPTER ELEVEN  
CHAPTER TWELVE  
CHAPTER THIRTEEN  
CHAPTER FOURTEEN  
CHAPTER FIFHTEEN  
CHAPTER SIXTEEN  
ABOUT THE AUTHOR  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This book is dedicated to the two hundred Christians who were herded inside a fagot stockade on the morning of March 16, AD 1244. Once inside the soldiers set the fagots on fire. Soon the stockade became a fiery holocaust in which the two hundred men, women and children perished “to the glory of God.”
 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  
Magda Bogin ( The women Trubadours/New York: Paddington Press, c 1976) for the use of her English translation of Lady Castelloza’s poems.
George W. MacRae and R. McL. Wilson for the use of their English translation of THE GOSPEL OF MARY (BG 8502,1)
Dr. Paul Roland, Ph.D., Ellen Barnes, Rev. Janet Sunderlund, Barbara Sexton and my sister Louise Augustsson for their faithful support through the years of the writing. I wish to thank the faculties of the Theological Seminary of the University of Dubuque, Iowa and Luther Theological Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota for their support and encouragement. I especially want to thank my mentor Dr. Markus Barth, Th.D. of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, who taught me to look beneath the surface and suspect the obvious.
And I wish to acknowledge the anonymous scholars who have labored to “dig” out the original manuscripts of the period. Without their labors this story could not have been told.
 
 
On March 12, 2000 AD Pope John Paul II issued a major mea culpa (an acknowledgement of faults or errors) for the acts of the servants of the Church.
Pope John Paul II in a major mea culpa that church officials said was unprecedented, sought forgiveness for the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics: for sins against Jews, including the Holocaust, and for centuries of sins against other victims of holy wars, forced conversions and church oppression, sins dating to the Inquisition, even the Crusades and beyond. It included what happened at Montsegur on March 17, 1244 AD.
This admission of guilt and the plea for forgiveness is welcomed. Perhaps we can now find openness to tell the full story of Montsegur. This is a story that has never been told from the victims’ point of view; only the victors’ accounts survive.
I have set it my task to tell you what happened at Montsegur on that fateful day. Why me? Because I was there! I want you to see that event through my eye. Of course I wasn’t known by my present name. I was known then as Sir Del Congost, knight, in service to the Christians at Montsegur. And this is what really happened.
CHAPTER ONE  
 
“Kill them all; God will look after his own,” ordered Arnald-Amalric at the gates of Beziers, 22nd July 1209.
1
As I said I am Sir Del Congost and I have a black hole in my face where once there had been a steel-blue eye. The man who burnt out my left eye was Hugue des Arcis, the Seneschal who leads the French Army that is taking up siege positions around Montsegur this day in May in the year of our Lord 1243. Three hundred and fifty Christians have sought refuge in this high mountain sanctuary in what will be later known as Southern France but was known to me as Aquitaine, a free and independent nation. I am an old knight who has pledged my service to defend these Christians.
Standing on the battlements of Montsegur, I’ve been watching the French army as it advances up the narrow valley road that leads to the small village of Lavelanet that squats like a cow-pie at the foot of Montsegur.
I am the senior knight present. Being in my late fifties, I have been fighting the invading French armies for the past thirty-four years.
I told my two squires, Daniel and Jonathan, who stood beside me, “The French come like the crows of spring. They’ll depart in the fall leaving their bloody fields for the carrion,”
Daniel and Jonathan, who are but teenagers were physically strong.
“When did you first fight them?” Asks Daniel.
“I was a young squire about your age and pledged to Sir Delbert. We had rushed to the relief of Beziers down near the Mediterranean coast. Our detachment of knights arrived at a ridge overlooking the plain of Beziers on the 22nd ofJuly in the year of our Lord 1209. We were too late.
“Within the walls of Beziers, seven thousand women, children, invalids, babies and Christian priests had sought sanctuary in the Church of Mary Magdalene.
“In a few short hours after Arnald-Amalric’s order the wealthy city of Beziers was a city of bleeding mutilated corpses, and nothing else. The brigands occupied the houses, streets and churches. They thought nothing of stamping about in the blood they had spilled.
“It was a terrible thing to stand back and watch the slaughter. In order to slaughter all those innocent people even the most hardened fanatics had to have been in the full grip of blood lust. Blood lust rose in their throats with each swipe of their blades as the heads of children were halved like melons. Gray brain mass oozed onto the cobblestones and was washed down the gutters by rivers of hot blood.
“After the slaughter, the churlish soldiery began to gather their booty, having found the houses full and running over with wealth.
“We watched from a distance unable to do anything to stop them as they argued over the vast spoils that those plentiful deaths had bequeathed to them. Only the young, able-bodied women and boys remained alive to become slaves for servitude and pleasure.
“The French knights, upon seeing what was happening to their battle spoils, nearly choked with fury. They drove the ruffians out with clubs and sticks as though they were mongrels.
“Nothing could be crueler than the detachment of those hardhearted French knights who had no concern for the slaughter of innocents but choked with fury when they saw ordinary soldiers making off with their plunder.
“The French crusaders wasted no time to sing the Te Deum Laudamus (We praise thee, O God), as had been done after the sack of Jerusalem. Nor did they express any regret at the spectacle of corpses piled up by the thousands—old men, young children, babies, mothers, pregnant women, growing boys, and courageous defenders, all heaped together in a huge pile in the city square.
“The French knight’s main concern was to save their precious booty. The Army of the Lord, as they proudly called themselves, needed the booty to continue their campaign. Besides, it was a golden opportunity for lining their pockets. The knights possessed the Papal Indulgence and could do with impunity what was forbidden to the mercenaries.
“So the mercenaries were stripped of their newly acquired possessions. The soldiers, in a fit of understandable anger, set fire to the city of Beziers. The sight of blazing buildings spread panic among the looters. The Crusaders abandoned Beziers to its fiery fate as they carted off its wealth. A large part of the city burned to the ground, consuming the corpses of its inhabitants with it.
“Burned, too, was the Church of Mary Magdalene. So fierce were the flames that it burst and cracked down the middle, collapsing in two halves.
“The gagging stench of human bodies burning rose up to our nostrils in greasy black clouds that drifted over the surrounding lands. We had to wrap rags and clothes over our faces to cut the acid stench that saturated our clothing, equipment and food. Fortunately for the Army of the Lord they had set camp up wind of the huge burning pyre.
“For three days, the Crusaders rested in the grassy meadows counting their booty and seeking pleasure in their captives. On the fourth day they departed, knights, sergeants and footmen all together, across open country. The knights raised their ensigns beside the white Christian ensign with its golden cross. The colorful banners streamed in the wind as the Army of the Lord moved up the Aude valley to the accompaniment of the steady beat of the kettledrums.
“We withdrew before the advancing Crusaders who were fierce for plunder, with no fear of its consequences, not even death. Because of the Papal Indulgence, the Crusaders knew that any sin committed by them had already been forgiven and their place in heaven secure. The Crusaders cut the throats of any who stood in their way.
“Today, you heard the drums beating as the French army entered Lavelanet. I can still hear those drums echoing in my ears as we retreated up the Aude valley in frustration and shame.
“Boom.. .Boom.. .Boom.. .Boom.
“Like the rolling thunder of an approaching storm the deep rumblings of the drums went before the Army of the Lord as it moved up the valley to Carcassonne.