Montsegur: Love in the Time of the Inquisition

By Jerome V. Lofgren

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 13, 2000
• ISBN: 9781469747989

Jerome V. Lofgren

Jerome V. Lofgren lived and wrote in Poulsbo, Washington. His work, "The Search for Jack London" won International EPPIE 2000 Award for the best non-fiction book published in the year 2000. Writing primarily in the historical format he has written a total of six books as well as a collection of short stories. He passed away on January 16, 2014.

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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. On the 3rd of August they attacked.

"The war-whoops of the attacking knights and the resisting garrison, the shrieks of the wounded and dying, the mercenaries’ exultant howls and their victims’ screams of terror, the deathly tolling of every church bell in the city and the metallic clash of arms—produced an appalling uproar. The tumult was enough to disturb the victors as well as the soon to be vanquished.

"Places of refuge became traps as the doors of the Christian churches were forced open. All inside were slaughtered wholesale—old women, invalids, babies, and Christian priests, the latter clasping the Chalice or holding aloft the cross of Christ.

"Inside the castle at Carcassonne a mighty throng had taken refuge thinking themselves secure within its high towers and well-fortified walls. But the Crusaders cut off the water supplies, and in the great heat of that scorching summer the wells dried up.

"The defenders were plagued by many things: the stench of the sick, rotting entrails of the numerous cattle slaughtered within the walls and growing piles of steaming dung, human and animal, that accumulated in the castle yard. There was also the weeping and wailing of women and children amid swarms of flies that bred in the heat. The torment of the defenders was terrible.

"The fall of Carcassonne, after a two week siege, must be regarded as an incontestable triumph for the Army of the Lord.

"The uplifted army moved on to the beat of their booming drums. For the next thirty-four years the drums continued to beat, cities fell.

Boom...Albi.

Boom...Castres.

Boom.Caussade.

Boom.Fanjeauz.

Boom.Gontaud.

Boom.. .Mirepoix.

"The Army of the Lord grew bolder with each conquest!

"The Roman priests who accompanied the army cried, ‘Show them no mercy.’

"The garrison at Alayrae was massacred to a man.

"I was part of the garrison of one hundred knights at Bram when it surrendered. I saw them herd two hundred Christian bons hommes, good men and women, to the edge of a cliff. Below, the camp followers had constructed a huge fire of fagots. The Christian bons hommes were given the choice. They could jump as a group or be forced over the edge at lance point one at a time. They chose to rush forward and leap into the flames en masse with their arms locked in unity.

"As knights we were spared slaughter. We expected that our victors would extend the code of chivalry to us and allow us to withdraw with our horses and armor. However, upon the insistence of the Roman Priests they tied our arms behind our backs and ordered us to our knees. A bear of a man then put a headlock on each in turn. With our heads held firm, Hugue des Arcis took a two-pronged poker out of the fire. The red tipped poker sizzled in the evening damp. With that iron poker he burned out the eyes of my fellow knights with a single thrust. One knight after another had his eyes burned out. Then my turn came.

"When I looked into Hugue des Arcis’s eyes I was shocked. They were deep black pools, devoid of passion.

"I remember how fascinated I was in watching the two glowing poker ends approach my eyes. I tensed for the searing pain and the eternal darkness that would surely follow. At the last instant the poker shifted and burned out just my left eye.

‘So you will be able to lead away your fellow knights,’ Hugue des Arcis whispered in my ear, ‘to spend the rest of your lives as street beggars.’"

Squire Daniel asks, Didn’t the hot iron hurt?

"Not at the instant. There is a strange sensation of knowing without feeling. I knew my left eye was being burnt out. Of course I saw the end of the red-hot poker approach. Then there was darkness. I had the sensation of knowing what was happening but feeling no pain. The eye that protests violently at even the slightest spec or scratch feels no pain at the instant of burning. For nearly four hours afterwards there was no pain. When the pain came it came suddenly like the slice of a sword parting my skull. It was the most terrible pain I’ve ever experienced. It came in one sudden surge. I’ve suffered broken arms, ribs, and even a shattered leg. My body has been sliced and pierced but there was never a pain as great as the pain that racked my head following the burning. It racked my head for four days and nights without let up. The physicians came twice a day to have us lie on the dungeon floor as they poured cool olive oil into our eye sockets.

I would’ve gladly chosen death to escape the pain of burned eyes. Hugue des Arcis wanted to inflict the maximum pain on our bodies. He ordered us to be chained to the dungeon walls to prevent us from committing suicide. Slowly, the pain eased as our wounds healed. When we were free of pain they unchained us and turned us loose.

Daniel asks, Is that Hugue des Arcis the same man who now commands the approaching French army?

The very same.

I fell silent for a few minutes before continuing my account.

"I remember how the people watched silently as a string of one hundred horses tied nose to tail with fully armored knights astride their backs passed through their villages. The knights sat rigid, looking neither to the right nor to left. It was a ghostly sight to behold; gallant knights with black holes where once there had been eyes. It was a nightmarish scene.

"As you can see, when a hot poker is thrust into an eye it not only burns away the eyeball but the eye lids as well, leaving a black hole in my face as well as in my soul.

Do you understand the importance of what I’m telling you? When people greet one another they look first into a person’s left eye then shift to the right eye.

Squire Daniel was well aware that my deformity was the dominating feature of my face, the thing people noticed first. My disfigurement gave me ferocity in battle that terrified my enemies but disqualified me for the campaign of courtly love.

"In the town of Lavaur there were four hundred Christian bons hommes, all good men and women, who witnessed to the generosity and courage of the woman, Guiraude, the Chatelaine of Lavaur. She had made her fortress a place of refuge for the Christians. That great lady paid dearly for her devotion.

"In defiance of every article of war or chivalry, the commander ordered, ‘Strip her and give her to the men for sport.’

"When their lusts were satisfied the men tied her wrists with a rope and attached the rope to the saddle of a horse. She was dragged through the town gates and thrown down a well. The soldiers then dropped stones on her until she was buried.

"I recall hearing a beggar who had witnessed the deed say, ‘that was a great sin and loss. Never did a living soul leave her roof without first having eaten well.’

"The four hundred faithful Christians to whom Guiraude had given refuge were led into the meadow outside the chateau. A zealous crowd of camp followers quickly erected four hundred stakes with fagots heaped up around them. Upon command the Christian men and women placed their clothing in neat piles at their feet. They filed past a knight who held a basket to receive their rings, jewelry and any other article of value.

"The tying to the stake was done in this manner. With backs pressed against the stake the victim’s arms were tied at the elbows snugly behind the stake. A cord was looped around their necks and tied to keep them standing upright.

With pitch torches blazing the soldiers ran from stake to stake setting the fagots on fire. The meadow soon became a gigantic cake with four hundred bright candles of blazing naked men and women.

Jonathan asks, I’ve heard accounts of burnings but I do not know how one dies in such a manner. Is it terribly painful? Do they suffer long?

I cleared the emotion that had welded up in my throat.

"I stood in the crowd that watched the four hundred die. I remember one woman, in her thirties, a beautiful woman with long blonde hair. She had caught my eye and held me transfixed as the flames grew about her feet. She smiled reassuringly as smoke and heat boiled up around her. At any moment I expected her to start screaming in pain. I heard the crackling of the fagots but nothing more. She lifted her chest in one final draw of breath then collapsed in her bindings. Apparently, the heat and flames had stolen the air from her lungs and she suffocated in the smoke and gases long before the flames consumed her flesh.

"The fat in a human body adds fuel to the flames. Burning flesh gives off a black, greasy smoke and a stench I’ll never forget. The stench clung in my nostrils and in the hair