ABSTRACT
After the fires went out there were the remains of the dead bodies of the Cathar Good Men and Women.1 Sometimes the bones and ashes were collected and kept by Cathar followers as relics.2 Hardly surprising, this, until we reflect on Cathars’ utter rejection of the material world and human bodies, all of which were entirely the creation of an evil principle or evil God. How could holiness reside in these material objects? Elsewhere we find the opposite, shocking disregard for the bodies of the dead. After receiving the body of a dead Cathar Good Man Bernard Gralh of Vielmur handed it over to a fisherman, who threw it into the river Tam. Bernard was talking to inquisitors in 1244, and he went on to tell them about the body of
2 Christianity and Community in the West
another dead Cathar, which was thrown into an old pit.3 And elsewhere we find what we might expect, examples of the Good Men receiving more dignified burial, in cemeteries.
