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PaperclipPerfector  10d ago (text post)   2619 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 8, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Anyone here know anything about Catharism? Can you recommend any good resources on the topic?

It's been 15 years, but I think I liked Pegg's Corruption of Angels, but would have preferred to check out from library than buy for class.

Anyone here know anything about Catharism?

For a quickie, I enjoyed this blog, and thought it gave a good ELI5 view of what they believed vs. other spiritual traditions.

I somehow stumbled on that blog post recently as well.

Emmanual LeRoy Ladurie's Montaillou remains canonical. It is a piece of academically serious history based on the records of the Inquisition, but is accessible to a lay reader.

It's also a fascinating little read on medieval daily life. The inquisition flipped over everyone's mattresses, so you get a lot of the seedy details on what (at least one) 13th century community was 'really like'.

I wonder if the priest sleeping with half the village's women and girls was typical, or if that was due to him being a weird gnostic heretic.

The introduction to my edition of Montaillou said that the Cathar clergy were notably less likely to engage in sexual immorality than the Catholic clergy, and that this was a major part of why Catharism spread as far as it did.

Which makes it even more of a reminder that sexual abuse of low-status teenage girls is ubiquitous unless someone makes an effort to prevent it.

It’s still ubiquitous if someone does make an effort to prevent it, considering what goes on in the underclass.

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