The Spirit of Crusade

Although religion and politics should be totally incompatible, priests are just as vulnerable as politicians to the temptations of worldly power. Aggressive religious leaders the world over never fail to claim God as their unquestioned and unquestioning ally. The sad thing is that so many people believe the claim. The leaders themselves believe it.

In this respect things have changed very little since biblical times. The weaponry may differ but the justification for mayhem and land grabbing remains the same. Beneath all the self righteous indignation lies the lust for total power. It drove Hitler into his holocaust against the Jews in the thirties and forties and it provoked Pope Innocent III into his crusade against the Cathars in 1209. His was a hypocritical and murderous campaign from the start and it was picked up and continued by successive popes until the last Cathar ‘parfait’ had been hunted down and burnt to ashes.

The map ‘Spirit of Crusade’ illustrates the brutal nature of this so-called crusade by quoting the words of Pierre des Vaux-de-Cernay; a priest who rode along with the crusaders and reported in detail to the Pope in 1213. Pierre was a man capable of admiring the beauties of the countryside as he exulted in the human torches he was lighting along the way.

The brilliantly illustrated map is 800 x 665 mm and printed in both French and English versions.

Either version is available.

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Click here for information about Cathar Eclipse, the companion volume to the Spirit of Crusade.