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The Perfect Heresy: The Life and Death of the Cathars Paperback – May 21, 2001

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Stephen O'Shea (Author)
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4 out of 5 stars 53 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Profile Books Ltd; Re-issue edition (May 21, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1861973500
  • ISBN-13: 978-1861973504
  • Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #514,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 103 people found the following review helpful
A Black and White world....
By Dianne Foster HALL OF FAME on December 21, 2000
Format: Hardcover
Stephen O'Shea's book, THE PERFECT HERESY is extremely readable, and if you're on your way to Languedoc and want to know more about the Cathars, this is a good read. However, be warned, the book is a bit biased, and there are some factual errors.
O'Shea relies on secondary sources, and although he quotes some "primary" sources (English translations) others have translated the passages differently. For example, in 1242 in the town of Avignonet, two Domincan priests, Stephen of St Thibery and William Arnald, were attacked and killed by the Cathers. O'Shea says, "Feverish hands rifled through a wooden chest, found the Inquisition register, and ripped it to pieces; a flaming brand was lowered to set the names alight." Malcom Lambert, in his book THE CATHERS says the registers were taken and sold by soldiers.
O'Shea's writing, including the excerpts he uses to illustrate his points are designed to enhance the sensationalism of the story of the Cathars (he is a journalist). For example, on page 5 he attributes a quote Arnoud Amaury supposedly uttered at the seige of Beziers, "Kill them all, God will know his own." This quote was written thirty years later by a chronicler not present at the seige. Mr. O'Shea acknowledges later in the book that "historians disagree" about the accuracy of Amaury's statement. The chronicler wrote a French version of a mot taken directly from the Bible and put it into Amaury's mouth. So much for verismilitude.
O'Shea's book is mistitled. He spends little time discussing Cather theology or "heresy" and much time describing Simon de Monfort's military victories (maps of field movements, etc.) which is quite interesting, and takes up about a third of the book.Read more ›
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
The Title IS Correct
By S. Kaufmann on February 20, 2006
Format: Paperback
Actually this is one of my all-time favorite books. It is one of the few histories I have read where even the notes pages are interesting to read. He also ENCOURAGES you to look into it more on your own and includes an annotated bibliography in the back. The previous reviewer is WRONG about the title. The book IS about the LIFE and DEATH of the Medieval Cathars and NOT their theology. It goes over the contextual culture and history of the area where Catharism took hold, it goes over the various events that shaped what happened to the Cathars. The title does NOT imply that it is going to be about the theology of the Cathars although he touches on that in a basic form too. This is not a book written in an academic style (admittedly so by the author himself) but designed as a version written for a larger audience than just an academic with his nose up in the air at anything that doesn't read like a lab report. This is actually a fun read. I happen to be Catholic and this is NOT a biased book I felt. O'Shea is honest about what issues the Catholic Church had at the time (and continues to have in many aspects). Although I don't agree with one reviewer that the Papacy is the Anti-Christ (what some extreme Protestant sects hold that are the inherents of the Cathars), I do think some Catholics might find the information in this book challenging depending on their knowledge of the church and its history and thier experience with it. O'Shea does miss some important facts about the Cathars - what possibly happened within their ranks that might have contributed to their demise along with the crusade; the competition with the Spiritual Franciscans and the Waldensians who shared some of their views (extreme poverty for example).Read more ›
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28 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Interesting but shallow
By John Cragg on December 20, 2000
Format: Hardcover
Stephen O'Shea has written a fast-paced and absorbing, though somewhat superficial, book on the crusades against the Cathars and the start of the Inquisition. Despite the title, the book is not really about the heresy. Instead, it is about the wars of conquest that were inspired in the name of stamping out heresy. O'Shea quite reasonably portrays the crusade as a land-grab by Northern barons and in particular the King of France. He sees the whole sorry business as being also an assertion of the temporal as well as spiritual hegemony of the papacy.
As such a history, the book is well done, but don't look here for any detailed exposition of the origins of Catharism and its doctrinal development, analysis of where Cathar beliefs differed from orthodoxy or how these beliefs were related to standard heresies going back to the early Church.
More puzzling is a lack of discussion in the book about why the crusade and apparently the geographical range of Catharism were limited to Languedoc. The conditions that O'Shea believes fostered the growth of Catharism surely were as prominent in Aquitaine as in Languedoc in the 12th century. Also missing is much discussion of why the English-Aquitaine crown essentially stood idle while areas (especially Toulouse) claimed as theirs fell into the hands of their principal rival.
O'Shea has written a very one-sided book. It starts with a description of the looming threat of the Cathedral of Albi, with its tiny entrance and castle-like buttresses, but O'Shea fails completely to mention the astonishing interior, with a totally different atmosphere and a concrete, positive portrayal of what the Church could offer to those within it.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Vital Knowledge for Relgiious Studies

This book should be required reading for Christians and historians to further their understanding of how religion can be distorted and perverted. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Searcher
One of the Catholic Church's darkest adventures

The Albengensian Crusade (1209-1229) was to be Pope Innocent III's final solution to the Cathar problem. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Matthew J. Brennan
Revealing about the power struggle between the established church and...

Revealing about the power struggle between the established church and local communities in the way they make sense of existence. Written in a very approachable style. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Cherry's son
Informative

A good overview of Cathar history, with a detailed bibliography. This book was very interesting, although not an easy read.

Published on November 14, 2013 by Rosanne Livingstone
A very readable history of the persecution of the Cathars in SW France

As we were getting ready for a trip to France that would include a stop in Carcassonne - the fabled, walled fortress-city in SW France, my wife and I wanted to learn more about the... Read more

Published on November 1, 2013 by Brett August
You won,t put this book down!

Well written, well researched book

A great easy read for anyone who is interested to find out more about the Cathars . Read more

Published on September 24, 2013 by Nola B.
Fascinating history, told in great narrative

I live in France and have visited the Cathar Castles, and this book provides an excellent, compelling narrative history of the people involved, the battles, sieges, and political... Read more

Published on April 23, 2013 by Liam H Dooley
Wonderful Introduction

This was the first book on the Cathar heresy I picked up and I've read a dozen since. Readable, entertaining despite its gruesome subject, it's a good and easy introduction to a... Read more

Published on February 21, 2013 by Berkeley Bibliophile
Trite, like television

"Hard to read" used to mean too dense or lofty, but the style from page 1 onward (well, I made it only 50 pages or so) in this book is almost insultingly bad, trite, would-be... Read more

Published on August 24, 2012 by B. Benton
a bit light, but it is a solid introduction to the Cathars

After having truly loved the author's Sea of Faith, I was a bit disappointed with this book: it lacked a certain density, offered little on the Medieval context, and concentrated... Read more

Published on August 8, 2011 by Robert J. Crawford

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