The cathar heresy in southern France

The cathar heresy in southern France Abstract: This master's degree work deals the history of the cathar heresy in the area of southern France from the mid-12th century to the 1st third of the 14th century. It supplies the minute description of the historic events, that influenced the development of the cathar church and trace the changes in the political, religious and social sphere that accompanied it. The work sketches out the base of the cathar doctrine along with the structures of the cathar ecclesiastic hierarchy. On the base of the accessible sources and literature, it takes aim in charting the fates of the cathar heresy from the point where it first emerges in the historical sources, through the period of its development in the space of Occitania and the crusade against cathars, as far as its slow destruction during the activity of the papal inquisition. The work tries to handle the social and political phenomena, which partook in the development of the heresy and describe the change they undertook in the era of its persecution. This works brings new impulse for the study of the issue of the history of the cathar heresy and its relation with other heretical groups into the Czech academic sphere. Key words: cathars, heresy, Middle Ages, history of France, crusade, inquisitio