Historiography of heresy: The debate over “Catharism” in medieval Languedoc

Whether or not a dualist Cathar heresy existed in medieval Europe has been widely debated among medieval historians over the past twenty years. Historians taking the traditional view hold that reports of a dualist heresy in various places and at different times during the High Middle Ages evidence a pan‐European, institutional, counter‐church. This church, many have argued, was influenced by dualism emanating from the Balkans and possibly reaching back to Late Antiquity. A recent generation of skeptics challenges this story, claiming that what was perceived as a dualist heresy was actually a manifestation of dissidence arising out of local conditions and, in any case, tied to anticlericalism and the enthusiasms of the Gregorian reform. The alleged dualism, they argue, derives from contemporary critics' readings of the patristic sources they consulted in attempting to understand dissidence. These two historiographical camps do not agree on the facts, the terminology, or the proper interpretation of sources, making it very difficult to discuss medieval heresy. This paper seeks to familiarize historians with the state of the debate over heresy in medieval Languedoc by describing and critiquing the positions of the two sides and suggests that the controversy provides an important lesson to students of history.