This interactive map shows settlements in Languedoc in which Cathar religious, known as heretici in the inquisitorial registers, are attested to have dwelt publicly in houses they owned or rented. The period covered ranges from the oldest memory going as far back as 1175 up until the fall of the castrum of Montségur in 1244. After Montségur, no evidence can be found for the survival of overt Cathar houses in Languedoc; Cathar Christians could no longer live publicly and were forced to live as itinerant fugitives. This change was already ongoing in the 1230s.

“Houses of heretics”. The expression “houses of heretics”, well-attested in inquisitorial records, describes houses in which small same-gender communities of Cathar religious lived, worked, and performed their religion. Sometimes these households included other people too, mostly young relatives or craft apprentices. As Brenon ([1997] 2003: 217-218) and subsequently Pegg (2001: 117-120) have shown, the category of “houses of heretics” is one with fluid borders. Some were simply houses whose owners had decided to receive a Cathar baptism (a laying on of hands called a consolament) and live together with a Cathar family member or friend of the same gender (for rare mixed-gender exceptions, cf. Brenon [1997] 2003: 218-219). In much rarer instances, the “houses of heretics” were larger dwellings, sometimes containing workshops where apprentices became accustomed to dissident culture as well as learning a craft (cf. Kaelber, 2003).

Criteria. In this dataset and map, settlements have been included if Languedocian inquisition records describe heretics living publicly in these locations. An explicit mention of houses being the heretics’ own has not been required. However, settlements where the sources speak of heretics staying in somebody else’s house, or simply being publicly seen or met, have not been included. Another criterion has been the explicit mention, or very reliable inference, of a specific settlement, not just of a region: the mentions of regions (Caramanès; the region of Saint-Félix) are covered in the dataset but do not appear on the map.

Dataset. The dataset on which the map is based constitutes the most extensive list of settlements with “houses of heretics” in Languedoc available to date. The initial idea was to only integrate, restructure, and geocode the lists by Duvernoy (1976: 231-232) and Roche (2005: 200-201). It turned out, however, that the data required significant expansion (ca. 25 more settlements, i.e. one third of the total number, have been discovered in the course of our research). Also many dates and specific references to sources were added. However, even after this expansion the dataset does not give a complete picture of settlements that contained “houses of heretics”. It is a result of ongoing work, and presents several coverage biases, some inescapable, other less so: the effective reach of inquisitorial tribunals; the coverage provided of extant evidence; the state of modern editions of Languedocian inquisitorial records; and the almost exclusive focus on Toulouse ms. 609 in our supplementing of the lists provided by Duvernoy and Roche.

Map. The map can be filtered by periods. These broadly correspond to the changing political circumstances in which Cathar Christianity operated: the pre-Crusade situation (until 1209); the 1210s; the 1220s; and the final period in which the “houses of heretics” are attested, the years between the Treaty of Paris (1229) and the fall of Montségur (1244) when inquisitors were already operating in the region. All settlements remain displayed, but those where there is evidence for Cathar religious living publicly in the selected period are highlighted in blue. The info box under each map symbol displays the place name, the list of attesting sources (precise folio references are available in the dataset), and all the years for which there is evidence of the house’s existence. If multiple pieces of evidence relate to one year, the year appears more than once in the list, thus giving an indicator of the corroboration of evidence by multiple witnesses: this can be regarded as fair-enough proxy for the intensity of activity. However, this is a work-in-progress: the list of dates is far from exhaustive and is affected by the above-mentioned coverage biases. Therefore, any conclusions concerning spatiotemporal patterns should be made with discernment. Also the precise years must be treated with caution due to both the limitations of witness memory and the way in which dates were recorded. For example, the overrepresentation of years ending at 5, 6, 0 or 1 is largely an artifact of rounding in Toulouse ms. 609 (1245-1246).

• Data sources: Toulouse, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 609 (edition by Evans & Sherwood, n.d.; Duvernoy, 2002; Rehr, 2019); Duvernoy, 1976: 231-232; Roche, 2005.
• Type of primary source: trial records.
• Data by David Zbíral.
• Map by Adam Mertel.

Recommended citation: Zbíral, D., & Mertel, A. (2019). Houses of heretics: Cathar religious houses in Languedoc, 1175–1244 (v. 1.0.5). Dissident Networks Project (DISSINET). Retrieved June 18, 2025, from https://dissinet.cz/maps/cathar-houses-languedoc.