How an ancient pagan temple became the fortress of the first childfree, what does the holy grail and other secrets of Montsegur castle have to do with it

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Holy Grail, a miraculous chalice, the history of which is associated with the Last Supper and the crucifixion of Christ, the knights of the Round Table, the magicians of the Third Reich … One of the places where the Grail was supposedly hidden is the Montsegur castle in southern France. However, the fate of Montsegur Castle, the last refuge of the heretic Cathars, is full of secrets without mentioning this ancient artifact.

The ruins of the Montsegur castle are located on the top of an impregnable mountain - they say that it is from its ancient name, Mont-gyur, "Safe Mountain", that the word originated, which has excited the minds of adventure seekers for centuries. The castle itself was badly damaged during the dramatic events of the siege of Montsegur and the destruction of the Qatari heresy, but even now it thrills tourists who risked climbing to it.

There are many blank spots in the history of the appearance, prosperity and death of the Cathars. The first mentions of this heretical movement date back to the 11th century. Presumably, catharism penetrated into southern France from Italy, but its roots are in Central Asia, Syria, Palestine, India … The essence of the teachings of the Cathars was literally the following: hell is on earth. The world in which we live, rejoice and suffer, is full of evil, and it is he who is the real hell. No punishment for sins will follow - it has already come. However, having purified themselves, after death, human souls can ascend to the Light, to the kingdom of heaven, full of goodness and grace. Interestingly, the Cathars were almost the first ideological childfree among the laity. They believed that bringing new people to earthly hell was a real crime, so they advocated birth control and celibacy. True, there are legends about violent Qatari orgies …

If the Cathars-“profane”, converts, simply adhered to a rather ascetic way of life, then the upper layer of heretics, “perfect”, rather resembled a secret society with many strange rituals, prohibitions, rules. The "perfect" Cathars dressed in black, renounced possession of property, engaged in propaganda activities, and even founded four bishoprics in the south of France, independent of the Catholic Church. From a hidden criticism of Catholicism, the Cathars turned to direct conflict, attacked representatives of the Catholic clergy, and set fire to churches. Their complete disregard for their own lives and the desire to die in battle made them especially dangerous opponents.

Catharism was very common among the nobility. In Toulouse, Languedoc, Roussillon, Gascony, whole families turned to the Qatari heresy. Women from high society were especially supportive of the heretics, probably because the refusal to bear children allowed them to throw off the heavy duty of endless pregnancies and childbirth. Be that as it may, the number and influence of the Cathars grew, and the Catholic Church could do nothing about it. Disputes, sermons, admonitions turned into skirmishes, and then into a large-scale religious and political conflict. The reason was that the squire of the Count of Toulouse, excommunicated from the church because of sympathy for the Cathars, mortally wounded a Catholic priest, a representative of the Vatican with a spear. Soon a crusade was organized against the heretics of the southern French lands. The blood of Cathars and Catholics poured on the ground, scarlet, the word of wine for which those lands are famous. The first fires of the Inquisition lit up …

Even at the beginning of the war, the "perfect" heads of Catharism organized the restoration and strengthening of the ancient fortress on Mount Montsegur. In time immemorial, the sanctuary of Balissena (analogue of Astarte or Artemis) was located here. For three decades, Montsegur became a stronghold of the Cathars. Elusive, they descended the secret mountain paths to arrange another "bloodbath" for the inquisitors. It seemed that the Cathars were helped by some powerful mystical force - otherwise how can one explain the fact that for thirty years Montsegur remained unconquered?

The last, most terrible and longest siege of Montsegur lasted almost a year. Twelve knights, their squires, fifty men at arms, their families and two Qatari bishops for eleven months valiantly defended the castle, which was regularly bombarded from a stone-thrower machine - the latest invention of military engineers. When the Cathars realized that death was inevitable, they sent two people to hide in the mountains (presumably in County Foix) their most important treasure. And then they handed over the castle. Struck by the strength of their spirit, the Catholics offered the heretics to abandon the vicious doctrine - in exchange for saving lives. However, the Cathars refused and with strange joy they accepted death at the stake.

The most incredible legends still circulate about the hidden treasure of the Cathars, as well as about what actually happened in the fortress of Montsegur and why this place has such a strange power. In the 16th century, the castle was rebuilt, and, apparently, nothing mysterious was found in it. In the middle of the 19th century, the prosthetic pastor Napoleon Peyrat wrote a romantic story about heretics who built Montsegur as the Temple of the Spirit and buried the patroness of the Cathars, Countess Esclarmonde de Foix, in the dungeons. At the beginning of the 20th century, in the wake of the craze for spiritualism and the so-called Celtic Renaissance, a stable opinion was formed that the secret of Montsegur was not a tomb or a pagan temple, but the Holy Grail. This story, as retold by the writer Otto Rahn, was mistaken for a historical fact by members of the Ahnenerbe, who, according to rumors, attempted an air assault on Montsegur in 1944 (however, there is no exact information about this event). In the 90s, the book “Holy Blood and the Holy Grail” was published, which interprets the events in Monsegur quite freely - the authors believe that the holy grail was the remains of the wife of Jesus Christ. This book was inspired by the writer Dan Brown, creating the acclaimed "Da Vinci Code". Today Montsegur is open to tourists. Risen from the dust, he still stands proudly on the top of the mountain - and who knows what other secrets the rich human imagination will endow him with?