The Yellow Cross: The Story of the Last Cathars' Rebellion Against the Inquisition, 1290-1329

If you love great history, this is your book. If you love a great story, this is your book.

This is a book about events that happened long ago. It's about the Cathars.They called themselves "the true Christians" as opposed to the Roman Church. They had no chance at all against the power of the established Church. They payed the ultimate price for being "Heretics"This should be compulsive reading for anyone genuinely interested in Religion.

Be forewarned: This is not a book for people who know nothing of the Middle Ages, the Inquisition, the Cathars or the small Langdocien village called Montaillou. If you are one of those, plese do yourself a favor in seeking out 'Montaillou' by Emmanuel le Roy Durie first. Drawing extensively on Inquisition documents (in their original latin) as well as his own research sur place, Mr Weis offers an astounding plunge into the everyday lives of people like you or I in the 13th century. Through a fluke of history, the implantation of a heresy known as Catharism or Albighensiesm in this small village, we know more about it, mu_ch more, than any other town, large or small; from the time. The ever-vigilant eye of the Inquisition fell upon it for a couple of decades, leaving a treasure trove of infomation for enterprising scolars like Weis. Who lived where, who slept with whom? Why? Who ate what? A priori, not the stuff of exciting crime fiction, but given the elevated stakes (no pun intended, burning at the stake was an everyday reality for these humble people!) Do yourself a favor. Get to know them. For me these folks are as real as my physical neighbours, and my life is all the richer for it. Do yourself a favour. Buy this book and give it time. For the properly prepared reader, it offers a world of richness to savour and savour again!

THIS A MUST READ FOR ANY CHRISTIAN WHO HAS NOT TOTALLY GIVEN-UP THEIR ABILITY FOR CRITICAL ANALYSIS. SHAME ON THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH FOR NOT MAKING THIS HISTORY KNOWN TO ITS PARISHONERS. AS IF ITS PAST HISTORY IS NOT BAD ENOUGH (INQUISITION AND ALL) TO LET ITS MEMBERS BELIEVE THAT THE DIVINITY ISSUE WITH JESUS WAS A DONE DEAL WITH NO DISSENTION IS BLASPHEMY ITSELF. TO READERS OF THIS CRITIQUE, IT WAS AN ISSUE OF CONTENTION FOR NEARLY 400 YEARS AND DID NOT DIE OUT WITH THE CONCLUSION OF THE COUNCIL OF NICEA IN 325. I CAN'T HELP BUT FEEL THAT ARIANISM IN MANY FORMS IS WITH US TODAY. THIS BOOK IS WELL DOCUMENTED AND MAKES DRAMA OUT OF THIS MID-FOURTH CENTURY PIECE OF HISTORY.

Some say you should give a book fifty pages to interest you, and if nothing happens, give up. At page 100, I'm still not interested, but I haven't given up. The first fifty pages were amazingly dull. So far, I'm not happy I didn't give up. If my opinion changes before the end (if I get to the end), I'll revise this review.

This is an excellent book on the last Cathars in Languedoc - sometimes it was a tad confusing to separate all the names - Weis spares details of the burning of heretics - but he does follow the various families very closely.A couple of charts of family ties (connections) would have been useful - occasionally the trips of the various participants were difficult to follow on the maps supplied