EP 004 | What Sources Survived?

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Early in the 1300s, the inquisitor Bernard Gui pointed readers to two piles of evidence: the Good Christians' own books and the confessions of converted followers. Seven centuries later, one pile is enormous and the other almost fits on a single shelf. In this episode, Rob walks the shelves by source type: the few Cathar and Cathar-associated texts (the Lyon and Florence manuscripts, the Dublin manuscript, the Secret Supper), Catholic treatises and chronicles, the vast inquisition records (Toulouse MS 609, the Doat transcriptions, the Fournier register), and rare everyday charters. We look at how some Cathar words survived only in their opponents' archives, what historians argue the imbalance means, and what no one can recover. John 20:30-31 then models an honest way to treat an incomplete record. Sources: Bernard Gui, Inquisitor's Manual (Robinson trans., Fordham); J. van Schaik, "Cathars, Albigensians, and Bogomils," Encyclopaedia Iranica (2006); M. R. Harris, foreword to the Occitan Cathar Ritual (RIALTO ed.); D. Zbíral, Graeco-Latina Brunensia (2015); NASSCAL e-Clavis, Questions of John; C. Bruschi and A. Sennis in A. Sennis (ed.), Cathars in Question (2016); University of York Doat Project, Toulouse MS 609; N. P. Stork, notes on Jacques Fournier (SJSU). Full source ledger available on request.