ABSTRACT
Bertrand of Taix was a knight from Pamiers in the pays de Foix. He was probably born around 1250 into a heretical family, for his father, Isarn, had been condemned as a contumacious heretic, possibly as long ago as 1236, while his mother, Ava, had been sentenced to wear penitential crosses for heresy. Bertrand himself died an unrepentant heretic, still believing in 'the errors of the Manichaeans'. In about 1300 Bertrand boasted to his maidservant, Margarita, that, when he was young, he had acted as a guide for heretics, frequently leading them to 'diverse places'. Such was his reputation that Roger Bernard III, Count of Foix, had once warned him that he might lose his lands as a consequence, but Bertrand had replied that 'he was not afraid of this, as long as his mother, whose lands they were, was alive'.
