Who remembers Occitania and the Cathar ?

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Catharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect that\nappeared in the Languedoc region of Southern France and flourished\nin the 12th and 13th centuries. Catharism had its roots in the\nPaulician movement in Armenia and the Bogomils of Bulgaria with\nwhom the Paulicians merged. The Cathars saw matter as intrinsically\nevil, they denied that Jesus could become incarnate and still be\nthe son of God. The Catholic Church regarded the sect as\ndangerously heretical. Faced with the rapid spread of the movement\nacross the Languedoc region, the Church called for a crusade, which\nwas carried out by knights from Northern France and Germany and was\nknown as the Albigensian Crusade. The anti-Cathar Albigensian\nCrusade, and the inquisition which followed it, entirely eradicated\nthe Cathars. The Albigensian Crusade had the effect of greatly\nweakening the semi-independent southern Principalities included in\nthe area of Occitania, such as Toulouse, and ultimately bringing\nthem under direct control of the King of France.

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Occitania, which had the misfortune of being the collateral\nvictim fo the Albigensian Crusade, used to be the crossroad of many\ncultures : Arabic Al-Andalus, Northern France and Flanders, Italy\nand even Constantinople. From this melting pot emerged a very\nrefined culture, which culminated with the troubadour tradition :\nit subsequently spread into Italy, Spain, and even Greece. Under\nthe influence of the troubadours, related new movements sprang up\nthroughout Europe: the Minnesang in Germany, trovadorismo in\nGalicia and Portugal, and that of the trouvères in northern\nFrance.

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This album does not only explore the \“classical\” period of the\ntroubadour school around the turn of the thirteenth century, it\nalso provides us with a comprehensive historical and artistic\nbackground of this Golden Age. It is time we remembered this\n“forgotten kingdom”, from which so much of theWestern culture\nemerged (detailed track listing on next pages).

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