Montsegur: a Memorial

A Page providing information on the hatred and intolerance shown by the Roman
Catholic Church during medieval times.

Montsegur was the fortress where the remaining survivors of the Cathar Crusade
held off the superior forces of Simon de Montford.

Rather than convert to Christianity, most of them were burned alive at the stake.

A people exterminated for their culture and their beliefs.

Montsegur: a Memorial

The Cathars: Martyrdom: Names of Montségur Martyrs (found on the internet)
On 16th March ,1244, the besieged refugees at the Château of Montségur ( Montsegùr) who refused to abjure the Cathar faith were burned en masse at the foot of the pog.
Around 25 had taken the theconsolamentum three days previously, so becoming Parfaits or Parfaites, and knowing that this sealed their fates.
Sources differ on the the number of victims. The Chronique de Guillaume de Puylaurens, gives the number as 200; the Chronique de l'Abbaye de Berdoues, states 205; The
Chronique de St-Paul de Narbonne 215; and Gerard de Frachet 224. These chronicals do not attempt to list all the victims, so historians have had to piece together a partial list,
mainly from Inquisition records.
As far as I am aware, sixty-three individuals have so far been identified by name. The names of those who recieved the consolamentum on the night of 13th March 1244 are
marked with a ‡.

Raymond AGULHER         Parfait        at Tarascon in 1204 and present at the Château of Montségur ( Montsegùr) from 1234.
‡        Guilleme AICARD.          Parfait        Resident at the Château of Montségur from 1234 with his wife and three sons.
Pons AIS.          Parfait        present at the Château of Montségur from the start of the siege, where he was a miller.
Pierre ARAU.         Parfait
Bernard d'AUVEZINES.          Parfait
Raymonde BARBE         Parfaite        from Mas Saintes-Puelles, sister of parfait Raymond du Mas (Raymond de Na Rica).
‡        Raymond de BELVIS.          Parfait        Crossbowman from Arnaud and seigneur of Usson. Arrived at the Château of Montségur around May-June 1243.
Arnaud de BENSA.          Parfait        From Lavelanet, sergeant, wounded end of February 1244, received the Consolamentum March 4.
Etienne BOUTARRA.          Parfait
‡        BRESILHAC.          Parfait        Dispossesed knight from Caihavel. Present at the Château of Montségur from 1236.
Pons CAPELLE,         Parfait        from Gaja. parfait arrived at the Château of Montségur around 1242 with his son, a sergeant.
Guidraude de CARAMAN.
Arnaud des CASSES.          Parfait        Knight and seigneur of Casses. A believer since 1220 and a parfait before 1243.
CLAMENS.          Presumably a Parfait        Present at the seige. Around 13 March 1244 is named as having transfered Church treasury into the custody of Pierre-Roger de
Mirepoix.
Jean de COMBEL          Presumably a Parfait        Knight from Laurac. Believed to have accepted Consolamentum during the truce.
Saissa de CONGOST.          Parfaite        From the seigniorial family at Puivert. parfaite from 1240. Householder on Montségur.
Raymonde de CUQ.          Parfaite        Sister or cousin of Berenger, the seigneur of Lavelanet. parfaite at Lauran in 1230. Lived with Corba de Pereille at the Château of
Montségur.
Guillaume DEJEAN,         Parfait        parfait from Tarabel, ordained deacon at the Château of Montségur.
‡        Guillaume DELPECH.          Parfait        Sergeant. Arrived to reinforce the Château of Montségur May 21, 1243.
‡        Arnaud DOMERGUE,         Parfait        of Laroque d'Olmes. Sergeant residing at Montségur since since 1236 with his wife.
‡        Bruna DOMERGUE,         Parfaite        wife of Sergeant Arnaud Domergue.
Rixende DONAT         Parfaite        of Toulouse. parfaite.
India de FANJEAUX.          Parfaite        A Lady from the Lahille branch of Fanjeaux. parfaite in 1227 and householder at Montségur.
‡        Guillaume GARNIER.          Parfait        Cow herder from d'Odars near Lanta and a believer since 1230. Sergeant at the Château of Montségur in 1243.
Arnajud-Raymond GAUTI,         Parfait        knight from Soreze and Durfort. Believer in 1237.
Bernard GUILHEM.          Parfait
Etienne ISARN         Parfait        of Casses. At the Château of Montségur with his brother.
Raymond ISARN,         Parfait        brother of Etienne.
Guillaume d'ISSUS,         Presumably a Parfait        knight and co-seigneur of Montgaillard in Lauragais. Believer in 1230. Present at the Château of Montségur since 1243 and
reported "burnt."
Jean de LAGARDE.          Presumably a Parfait        Condemned by the Inquisition in Moisac in 1233 and escaped to the Château of Montségur.
Bruna de LAHILLE,         Presumably a Parfaite        sister of Guillaume. Believer in 1234. parfaite at Montségur in 1240
‡        Guillaume de LAHILLE.          Parfait        Dispossesed knight from Laurac. Defender of Castelnaudary against Amaury de Montfort in 1219-1220. At the Château of
Montségur from 1240. One of the leaders of the massacre of the Inquisitors at Avignonet. Seriously wounded 26 February 1244.
LIMOUX (Limos).          Parfait
‡        Raymond de MARSEILLAN.          Parfait        Dispossessed knight from Laurac. Believer in 1232.
Bertrand MARTY.          Cathar bishop at Toulouse         From Tarabel. . Head of the Cathar Church at the time of the seige. Known to be at the Château of Montségur in
1232 and reported "burnt with all the others."
Guillelme MARTY.          Parfait        From Montferrier. Baker at Montségur
Pierre du MAS.          Parfait        From Mas Saintes-Puelles, parfait in 1229 and reported present at the Montségur in March 1244. Assumed to be among those executed.
MAURINA (MAURY)          Parfaite
Braida de MONTSERVER.          Parfaite        Related to Arnaud-Roger de Mirepoix. Believer in 1227, and received the Consolamentum during a grave illness in 1229 at
Limoux. Arrived as a parfaite at the Château of Montségur in 1240.
‡        Arsende NARBONA.          Parfaite        Wife of sergeant Pons NARBONA.
‡        Guillaume NARBONA,         Parfait        Squire to Raymond de Marseillan, and brother of Pons Narbona.
‡        Pons NARBONA,         Parfait        of Carol and Cerdagne. Sergeant.
Raymond de NIORT.          Parfait        parfaite from Belesta. Arrived clandestinely at the Château of Montségur in October 1243 with a letter from the Cathars of Cremona
in Italy.
Arnauld d'ORLHAC,         Parfait        from Lavaur.
‡        Corba de PEREILLE.          Parfaite        Wife of Raymond de Pereille. mother of Esclarmonde de PEREILLE,
‡        Esclarmonde de PEREILLE,         Parfaite        daughter of Raymond and Corba de Pereille.
PERONNE.          Parfaite        arrived at the Montségur in 1237.
Guillaume PEYRE,         Parfait        sergeant, agent of Raymond de Pareille. With CLAMENS, consigned the Cathar treasury at the Château of Montségur to Pierre-Roger
Mirepoix on March 13, 1244.
Guillaume RAOU.          Parfait
Alazais RASEIRE.          ??        From Bram or district. Captured at the Château of Montségur and returned for execution by fire at Bram.
‡        Jean REY.          Parfait.         From Saint-Paul-Cap-de-Joux. Courier. Arrived at the Château of Montségur on January 1, 1244, bearing a letters from the Cathars of
Cremona.
‡        Pierre ROBERT.          Parfait        Merchant from Mirepoix. Believer since 1209 - arrived at Montségur 1236.
Pierre ROBERT.          Parfait        Assisted in the Consolamentum of Raymond de Ventenac, mortally wounded in 1243. Possibly the same as the other Pierre ROBERT from
Miropoix
Martin ROLAND.          Parfait         Brother of sergeant Bernard de Joucou and uncle of the Narbona brothers. Believer in Lavelanet in 1232 and a parfait at Montségur in
1240.
‡ ?        Bernard de SAINT-MARTIN.          Parfait.         Dispossessed knight from Laurac. One of the leaders of the massacre of the Inquisitors at Avignonet. Believed to
have received the Consolamentum with the knights Guillaume de Lahill and Brezihac de Cailhavel.
Raymond de SAINT-MARTIN.          Parfait.and deacon.
Pierre SIRVEN.          Parfait, assistant to Cathar Bishop Bertrand Marty.
TAPAREL.          Parfait.
Rixende de TELLE (or TEILH).          Mother superior of the Parfaites at Montségur during the siege.
‡        Arnaud TEULY,         Parfait        from Limoux. Arrived at the Montségur before February 14, 1244.
‡        Raymond de TOURNEBOUIX.          Parfait        Sergeant.
Marquesia UNAUD de Lanta.          Parfaite        Believer since 1224 and ordained a Parfaite at the Château of Montségur in 1234.
‡        Ermengarde d'USSAT.          Parfaite        Believer at Montségur from 1240.

Monsegur is famous as the last stronghold of the Cathars after the Crusade against them inspired by the Pope and the King of France. It is also the location of the Holy Grail
according to early versions of the Grail legend.

A building on this site sheltered a community of Cathar women at the end of the twelfth century. Early in the thirteenth, Ramon de Pereille the co-siegneur and Chatelain, was
asked to make it defensible, anticipating the problems to come. From 1232 it became the headquarters of the Cathar community in the Languedoc, and a refugee centre for
"faidits" - outlaws who had been stripped of their lands and goods by the Roman Church. These faidits, exact counterparts of the more recent maquis, continued to wage a
guerilla war against the invaders.

After the failure of the uprising against the French invaders, the defeat of Henry III of England by Louis IX of France, the events at Avignonet, and the capitulation of Ramon
VII, all in 1243, the Council of Beziers decided to destroy the last vestiges of Catharism. The Cathar sympathisers responsible for killing the Inquisitors at Avignonet were
known to have come from Montsegùr. The Council therefore decided to "cut off the head of the dragon" by which they meant to taking of the château there, the last remaining
major centre of Cathar belief. The château, perched on top of a majestic hill (called a pog), had already been reinforced.

The castle was besieged later in 1443 by Hughes des Arcis, Seneschal of Carcassonne for the King of France. For months the siege was unsuccessful but shortly before
Christmas a group of Basque mercenaries scaled a seemingly impossible sheer cliff face, and overran a forward position. From here, under the direction of a Catholic bishop
specialising in war machines, the French were able to construct catapults. This spelled the end of all hope. The garrison surrendered on 2 March 1244 having negotiated a truce
of two weeks, after which the Parfaits would have to abjure their faith or burn alive.
The story of the siege of Montegùr is one of the most moving of all the tragedies associated with the war against the Cathars. Even the most hostile writers were struck by the
significance of events at Montegùr, when against expectation the ranks of the doomed Parfaits increased during the two weeks' truce.

Siege of Montsegur
Despite Saint Bernard's proclamation concerning the Cathars that, "No sermons are more Christian than theirs, and their morals are pure", Rome made every attempt in the
Albigensian Crusade to exterminate the Cathars. When Pope Innocent III ordered a crusade, the goal was nothing less than to reduce the highest European culture of the Middle
Ages to destitution and rubble. One of the allies of this crusade was a Spanish fanatic named Dominic Guzman. Spurred by a rabid hatred of heresy, Guzman in 1216 created
the monastic order subsequently named after him, the Dominicans. And in 1233 the Dominicans spawned a more infamous institution -- the Holy Inquisition.*

By 1243, all major Cathar towns and bastions had fallen to the northern invaders, except for a handful of remote and isolated strong points. Chief among these was the majestic
mountain citadel of Montsequr, poised like a celestial ark above the surrounding valleys. The fortress was besieged by invaders for ten months. The resistance to the attackers,
which numbered upward of ten thousand, was noteworthy. Part of the reason seems to be the alleged existence of a legendary Cathar "treasure".

On March 1, 1244, Montsegur finally capitulated. By then its defenders numbered less than 400. They were offered surprisingly lenient terms, but the defenders nevertheless
requested a two-week truce, a complete cessation of hostilities in order to consider the terms. In a further display of uncharacteristic generosity, the attackers acceded. In return
the defenders voluntarily offered hostages, whose lives would be forfeit if any defender attempted to escape from the fortress.

The two week truce is interesting in that it allowed a festival or special ritual to be held on March 14 -- which coincided with the spring equinox. On March 15, the truce
expired, and at dawn of the following day, more than two hundred of the Cathar parfaits, lay priests, were dragged roughly down the mountain, locked into a large wood-filled
stockade at the foot of the mountain and burned en masse. The remainder of the garrison witnessed this burning, but nevertheless connived in hiding four parfaits among them.

On the night of March 16, these four men, accompanied by a guide, made a daring escape -- again with the knowledge and collusion of the garrison. With them, they carried
some great treasure, but one that they must have done while dangling from ropes on a sheer mountainside. It is believed that much of the wealth of the Cathars (and/or Templars
in the area) had been secretly slipped out of Montsegur during the almost year-long siege. That is, the gold and jewels and other mundane relics of wealth. But this last daring
escape and carrying off of some great treasure is a bit more interesting.

The Cathars, by their contemporaries, were believed to have been in possession of the Holy Grail.

Esclaremonde de Foix was born in 1155 CE in the heart of Southern France, the daughter of Lady Zebelia Trencavel de Carcasonne and Roger Bernard, Count of Foix. Living her
life in the noble courts of Southern France, she was entertained by the troubadours or trouveres and had contact with the fideles d'amour who promulgated Catharist teachings
throughout Occitania, the Languedoc region of Southern France. The house of Foix welcomed the "heretical" Bulgarian Bishop Nicetas, who organized the Cathar religion in the
region and deeply impressed the young Esclaremonde.

In 1181 Esclaremonde led a group of Cathars out ofpersecution at the hands of Cardinal Henri of Albano to safety in the County of Foix. Throughout her later years she
devoted herself to the leadership of the Cathar faith and was called by her people "the Dove of the Paraclete." She founded hospitals for the elderly and wounded, lodging places
for refugees of war, convents for the "perfecti" (perfect ones) and schools for the poor. Under her leadership perfecti went out to every home assisting the poor and healing the
sick. The charity of the Cathars under her leadership did much to attract people to the new faith.

At age 55 Esclaremonde received the Consolamentum and was raised to the rank of Archdeaconess. With her friend Guilhabert de Castres she undertook the reconstruction of
the fortress of Monts'gur. For the next few years Pope Innocent III issued several maledictions against the Cathars. Esclarmonde participated in several cross examination
councils and debates where she eloquently and passionately defended the Cathar faith.

Beginning In 1207 and lasting for 37 years, the King of France under the auspices of the Pope mounted a crusade against the Cathars. Esclarmonde made the fortress of
Monts'gur the center of Cathar resistance. The armies of the King led by Simon de Montfort slew thousands of people throughout Southern France, Cathars and Catholics alike.
The most conservative estimate is that 250,000 were killed over a 40 year period. Esclaremonde passed over in 1240 at Monts'gur, and was secretly buried by her friend,
Guilhabert de Castres. He wrote her epitaph thus: "Great Esclaremonde! A dove has flown away, but in the Catharist country thy name remains forever engraved."