Reporting from Montpellier, France — They lived simple lives of austerity and abstinence and suffered horrifying deaths, cut down by marauding armies and burned at the stake as heretics — or so the ...

Rachael Kohn: They were the most feared of mediaeval Christian sects: they were the Cathars. Hello, and welcome to The Ark, I'm Rachael Kohn. Their territory stretched from Italy to France and the ...

Who were the Cathars, and what was daily life like for them? In this video, we explore the beliefs and lifestyle of this medieval Christian sect that challenged the power of the Catholic Church. The ...

In the 13th century, thousands in France were investigated, massacred, or even burned at the stake by the Catholic Church. THE TWO CHURCHESCathars (left) perform the consolamentum (Cathar baptism) ...

Who knows how many religions, cults, sects, sub-rosa-meeting secret societies, and schools of thought were forgotten or wiped out throughout history? One intriguing example are the Cathars. Barely ...

Catharism, a medieval offshoot of Gnostic Christianity, burned through the Catholic landscape of 13th-century Europe as swiftly as a plague. To the Catholic Church, it was very nearly as welcome. By ...

The cultural legacy of an ancient religious sect that was almost wiped out in the Inquisition is everywhere to be seen in the… The cultural legacy of an ancient religious sect that was almost wiped ...