Heterodoxy and Anti-Clericalism in Languedoc

THE WRONG SORT OF MENTOR: HETERODOXY AND ANTI-CLERICALISM IN LANGUEDOC David Blanks On 19 March 1317, at the age of 37, Jacques Fournier became the third Bishop of Pamiers, a newly created diocese south of Toulouse that comprised what is today the eastern half of the Department of Ariège and what was then the County of Foix. Fournier was born in the Ariège, near Saverdun, and later educated in Paris, where he earned his doctorate in theology. He began his ecclesiastical career at the abbey of Boulbonne, eventually transferring to Fontfroide, where he was made abbot in 1311.1 In Pamiers, Fournier proved himself to be a conscientious adminis- trator, touring his diocese in a systematic fashion. He was the first to do so. His predecessors had embroiled themselves in temporal affairs, and it was left to the new bishop both to extirpate the heresy that still lin- gered in the mountains and to make sure that the shepherds and farm- ers of this backwater section of the eastern Pyrenees were taught correct doctrine and correct practice. It is thanks in large part to the metic- ulous records that he kept that scholars have been able to re-construct the social history of the area; however—outside of the excellent work that has been done on Catharism2—little has been written about other unorthodox religious beliefs. In fact, ant-clericalism and unsanctioned opinions were widespread, and it begs the question: Who was minding the parishes? It is perhaps surprising that as late as the first half of the fourteenth century there were still areas of southern Europe that lacked effec- tive clerical oversight, especially in the wake of the French conquests, 1 On the life and career of Jacques Fournier, see Jean-Marie Vidal, Histoire des évêques de Pamiers-II: quatorzième et quinzième siècles (1312–1467) (Castillon (Ariège), 1932), pp. 19– 46. For a bibliography on Fournier and his work, see Frère Vincent Ferras, Documents bibliographiques concernant le rayonnement médiéval de l’ordre de Cîteaux en pays d’Aude (Albi, 1971), pp. 89–102. 2 See Michel Roquebert, L’Histoire des cathares (Paris, 1999); Jean Duvernoy, Les cathares (Toulouse, 1999); and Anne Brenon, Les cathares: une Eglise chrétienne au bûcher (Toulouse, 1998). 164 david blanks the growth of the power of the papacy, and the rapid spread of vari- ous monastic and preaching orders in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but Fournier uncovered a shocking level of heresy, hatred for the Church, and just flat out ignorance. The Diocese of Pamiers had witnessed a resurgence of Catharism in the generation prior to Fournier’s appointment, mostly as a result of the preaching efforts of three Cathar missionaries, the brothers Guillaume and Pierre Authié, and Pierre’s son, Jacques. In the thirteenth century the counts of Foix and their families had been sympathizers and in some cases believers. Some were said to have been hereticated on their deathbeds.3 But even if this story cannot be independently confirmed, the rulers at Foix were, at the very least, complacent about the Cathar preachers that traversed their lands, and there is little doubt that this provided for an atmosphere of free-thinking and the questioning of Catholic authority.4 All this was long after the Albigensian crusades, which is commonly said to have put an end to Catharism in the region. Not so in the Ariège—but by the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, when the house of Foix had finally been brought into the French fold, those believers that were left—old believers mostly, nearly all peasants, trying to hang onto the old ways—were the last generation to venerate the Cathar perfects. Thus Fournier found himself conducting mop-up operations. But this story is not about heresy: It is about the astonishing degree of heterodoxy that still existed in this remote corner of Languedoc and the failure of the Church to effectively instruct and monitor its flock. *** It was in the summer of 1318—in and around Pamiers—that Jacques Fournier first began to see the failures of those who had preceded him, when a priest from the village of Merviel informed him that one of his parishioners, Aude, had lost her faith in the real presence of Christ in the host.5 The young bishop investigated immediately, methodically, and in consultation with the local clergy. 3 Le registre d’inquisition de Jacques Fournier (1318–1325),ed.JeanDuvernoy,3 vols. (Toulouse, 1965), 2:427. Duvernoy also published a pamphlet of corrections (Toulouse, 1972) and a French translation (Paris, 1978). 4 Although the witness in question, Sibille Peyre d’Arques, claims that the count was hereticated, Jean Duvernoy has some doubts, see La Noblesse du Comté de Foix au début du XIVe siècle (Auch, 1961), p. 7. 5 Le registre (see above, n. 3), 2:82–105..

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