The Chateau of Montségur might look Medieval, but it was actually built up on the destroyed ruins of the Medieval fortress where about 210 people belonging to the Christian Albigensian sect were burned as heretics in 1244.
In the early 1200s, Pope Innocent III enacted an Inquisition — a legal investigation — to determine who were “heretics”: people who identified as Christians but went against official Church doctrine. Perhaps as many as 5% of people in modern France belonged to the Albigensian (aka Cathar) sect, which taught the belief in reincarnation, and that Jesus was never a physical incarnation. For the Albigensians the pure world of spirit was preferred to the material world.
In France, the king joined forces with the Papacy in a crusade against the Albigensians because they threatened his political control. “Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius” or “kill them all and let God sort them out” were the words one of the Crusader leaders gave when asked how to distinguish the heretics and the Catholics of one town. The destructive phrasing matched the spirit of the Inquisition.
Montségur was one of the last Albigensian fortresses, having held out against the Inquisition and Crusaders for many years. It perhaps held 500 people in the years before its destruction. French forces numbering about 10,000 besieged the castle starting in May 1243. They thought it would fall quickly, but the defenders were able to keep water and food inside much longer than anticipated. After nine long months, it became obvious that the fortress was going to fall. Anyone who recanted their heretical beliefs was allowed to leave, and most did. There is a legend that a few escaped with treasure that has never been found.
As the Iron Maiden lyrics say (the lyricist was big into history): “we kill them all so God will know his own/ the innocents died for the pope on his throne . . . At the gates and the walls of Montségur/ blood on the stones of the citadel . . .
