Catharism - Oldest Account of Ordinary People Told in Their Own Words

Oldest Account of Ordinary People Told in Their Own Words

In an effort to find the few remaining heretics in and around the village of Montaillou, Jacques Fournier, Bishop of Pamiers, future Pope Benedict XII, had those suspected of heresy interrogated in the presence of scribes who recorded their conversations. The late 13th to early 14th century document, discovered in the Vatican archives in the 1960s, is the oldest known account of the daily lives of ordinary people told in their own words. It was translated by Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie as Montaillou: the Promised Land of Error. In the original, the book was entitled:Montaillou, Occitan Village.

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