Editing Catharism (section)

=== Treaty and persecution ===
{{Confusing|section|date=January 2020}}
[[File:Filip2 albigensti.jpg|thumb|The burning of the Cathar heretics]]

The official war ended in the [[Treaty of Paris (1229)]], by which the king of France dispossessed the [[House of Toulouse]] of the greater part of its [[fiefdom|fiefs]], and the house of the [[Trencavel]]s of the whole of their fiefs. The independence of the princes of the Languedoc was at an end. In spite of the wholesale massacre of Cathars during the war, Catharism was not yet extinguished, and Catholic forces would continue to pursue Cathars.{{sfnp|Alphandéry|1911|p=506}}

In 1215, the bishops of the Catholic Church met at the [[Fourth Council of the Lateran]] under Pope Innocent III. Part of the agenda was combating the Cathar heresy.{{sfnp|Sumption|1999|pp=179–181}}

The Inquisition was established in 1233 to uproot the remaining Cathars.{{sfnp|Sumption|1999|pp=230–232}} Operating in the south at Toulouse, Albi, Carcassonne and other towns during the whole of the 13th century, and a great part of the 14th, it succeeded in crushing Catharism as a popular movement, driving its remaining adherents underground.{{sfnp|Sumption|1999|pp=230–232}} Cathars who refused to recant or relapsed were hanged, or burnt at the stake.{{sfnp|Martin|2005|pp=105–121}}

On Friday 13 May 1239, in [[Champagne (province)|Champagne]], 183 men and women convicted of Catharism were burned at the stake on the orders of the [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] inquisitor and former Cathar Perfect {{ill|Robert le Bougre|fr}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Haskins|1902|p=missing}}</ref> Mount Guimar, in [[Grand Est|northeastern France]], had already been denounced as a place of heresy in a letter of the Bishop of [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Liège|Liège]] to [[Pope Lucius II]] in 1144.<ref>"Ce lieu est terrible, le Mont-Aimé en Champagne", père Albert Mathieu</ref>{{full citation needed|date=September 2021}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://data.bnf.fr/15058149/albert_mathieu/ |title=Albert Mathieu |website=BnF |access-date=16 September 2019}}</ref>

From May 1243 to March 1244, the Cathar fortress of [[Montségur]] was besieged by the troops of the [[seneschal]] of Carcassonne and the [[archbishop of Narbonne]].{{sfnp|Sumption|1999|pp=238–240}} On 16 March 1244, a large and symbolically important massacre took place, wherein over 200 Cathar Perfects were burnt in an enormous pyre at the {{lang|fr|prat dels cremats}} ("field of the burned") near the foot of the castle.{{sfnp|Sumption|1999|pp=238–240}} The Church, at the 1235 [[Council of Narbonne (1235)|Council of Narbonne]], decreed lesser chastisements against laymen suspected of sympathy with Cathars.<ref>{{Citation |type=[[Papal Bull|Bull]] |author-link=Pope Innocent IV |last=Innocent IV |title=Ad extirpanda |year=1252 |title-link=Ad extirpanda}}.</ref>

[[File:CatharCross.svg|thumb|upright=0.7|Inquisitors required heretical sympathisers—repentant first offenders—to sew a yellow cross onto their clothes.{{sfnp|Weis|2001|pp=11–12}}]]
A popular though as yet unsubstantiated belief holds that a small party of Cathar Perfects escaped from the fortress prior to the massacre at {{lang|fr|prat dels cremats}}. It is widely held in the Cathar region to this day that the escapees took with them "the Cathar treasure".<!-- Translated from the French "le trésor cathar" - obvious meaning, no need to use French here --> What this treasure consisted of has been a matter of considerable speculation: claims range from sacred [[Gnostic texts]] to the Cathars' accumulated wealth, which might have included the [[Holy Grail]] (see {{format link|#Historical and current scholarship}} below).

Hunted by the Inquisition and deserted by the nobles of their districts, the Cathars became more and more scattered fugitives, meeting surreptitiously in forests and mountain wilds. Later insurrections broke out under the leadership of [[Roger-Bernard II, Count of Foix]], [[Aimery III of Narbonne]], and [[Bernard Délicieux]], a [[Franciscan Order|Franciscan]] friar later prosecuted for his adherence to another heretical movement, that of the [[Fraticelli|Spiritual Franciscans]] at the beginning of the 14th century. By this time, the Inquisition had grown very powerful. Consequently, many presumed to be Cathars were summoned to appear before it.{{sfnp|Alphandéry|1911|p=506}}

Precise indications of this are found in the registers of the Inquisitors [[Bernard de Caux|Bernard of Caux]], Jean de St Pierre, [[Geoffroy d'Ablis]], and others.{{sfnp|Alphandéry|1911|p=506}} The ''perfects'', it was said, only rarely recanted, and hundreds were burnt. Repentant [[laity|lay]] believers were punished, but their lives were spared as long as they did not relapse. Having recanted, they were obliged to sew yellow crosses onto their outdoor clothing and to live apart from other Catholics, at least for a time.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}