About The Friar of Carcassonne (2011)
The genesis of this book came from two sources. The first was my other book about the Cathars, The Perfect Heresy, in which I stumbled across the fascinating story of Brother Bernard Délicieux during my researches. At the time of writing that book, the transcripts of his trial of 1319 were available only in Latin, but in 2001 the late, great Jean Duvernoy translated and published them in French, making them accessible to me. And what I found in them was a real doozy of a tale of courage and revolt.
The second prod to undertake the project was our times, or, more specifically, what has happened to our principles of democracy and decency and humanity since the events of 2001. Bernard Délicieux was a man who stood up to the Inquisition, an institution preaching a gospel of fear about what was viewed as an existential threat: heresy. Replace heresy with terror, and his struggle becomes a parable for our current plight. Almost alone in his opposition to the persecuting ethos of his era, Brother Bernard denounced torture, secret tribunals, unlawful imprisonment and the abuse of power. I believe we need people such as him now more than ever.
Of the three excerpts, “Brother Bernard” introduces the subject and gives an overview of his career. “The Holy Office” describes the workings of the Inquisition and the amazing rationalizations that had to be made by the men of the Church to justify their inhuman treatment of prisoners. And “The Sermon” gives an example of Brother Bernard at work, stirring up the crowd and setting the stage for an epochal riot. Have a look.
