Cathar Country or le Pays de Cathare refers to an extensive tract of Occitanie stretching from Toulouse in the west to Béziers in the east and in the north up to Albi.

The Cathars were a religious cult originating in the South during the 10th Century whose adherents broke away from mainstream Christianity in large numbers and were thought of as heretics by the Roman Catholic Church. The name Cathar was taken from the Greek Katharoi meaning the ‘Pure Ones’. They were led by a small group of Perfecti or Perfects but the mass of the population including many noble families were Credentes or Believers.

They were ‘Dualists’ who believed there were two Gods - a good one who was in charge of the spiritual world and an evil one who controlled the physical world. They contended that the Papacy was corrupt and rejected the idea of building churches, worshipping instead in the open air.

The Albigensian Crusade