| Abstract | Another local philosopher, René Nelli, responded to the contemporary interest in spiritualism by being involved in [Roch]é's Society and by seeking to establish an authentic account of Cathar spirituality.(32) Whilst Nelli's earlier work has been recognized for its links with Roché's neo-Catharism, some of his later work as a poet and historian enlarged the framework for mythmaking and imagination about the Cathars. In his poetry, for example, Nelli explored themes of surrealism and questions of metaphysics within the spirituality of the Cathars, reflecting as he did on God, life, death and love in his poem "La Gaita." He also borrowed heavily from the myth of magic at [Monts]égur, evoking images of treasure, elves and angels in three of his poems: "La Nuit de Montségur," "L'Odc à Montségur" and "Montségur 1944." Some years later, as a historian and ethnologist, Nelli sought to understand the religion and society of the Cathars by describing the ordinary life of thirteenthcentury heretics living in [Languedoc] in La Vie quotidienne des Cathares en Languedoc au XIIIe siècle (1969). By reconstructing the organization and temper of daily religious life between about 1200 and 1350, Nelli presented Catharism through the eyes of the Cathars and their friends and sympathizers and made the activities of the Cathars more easily accessible and imaginable.(33)
(4). On why the élite might be drawn to Catharism, see Charles Bru, "Eléments pour une interprétation sociologique du Catharisme occitan," in René Nelli, ed., Spiritualité de l'hérésie: le Catharisme (Paris, 1953), 25-59; Jean-Louis Biget, "Notes sur le système féodale en Languedoc et son ouverture à l'hérésie," Hérésies, no. 11 (Carcassonne, 1988): 7-16; and Annie Cazenave, "Hérésie et société," in [Anne Brenon] and Nicolas Gouzy, eds., Christianisme médiéval, mouvements dissidents et novateurs (Villegly, 1989), 7-61.
(9). Christine Thouzellier, Un Traité cathare inédit du début du XIIIe siécle d'après le "Liber contra Manicheos" de Durand de Huesca (Louvain, 1961); Rituel cathare latin (Paris, 1977); and Léon Cledat, Le Nouveau Testament au XIIIe siécle en langue provençale suivi d'un rituel cathare (Paris, 1968). The discovery of original texts ushered in a new generation of Cathar historians that has, over the last fifty years, dedicated itself to a new approach to writing history. With a new and vigorous insistence on scholarship and the use of historical material, it has sought to reveal the "truth" about Catharism by studying Catharism from "within": that is, as a religious phenomenon of its own, and outside of the dialectic of heresy and orthodoxy. It also prompted a new methodological approach in which Catharism was reconsidered within its own historical and sociological contexts. Among the pioneers of this new approach were Steven Runciman, The Medieval Manicbee: A Study of the Christian Dualist Heresy (Cambridge, 1947); Arno Borst, Die Katbarer (Stuttgart, 1953); and Raoul Manselli, Eresia del male (1963), and Studi sulle eresie del secolo XIIe (1953 and 1975). The first French historians to follow this scholarly approach were Christine Thouzellier (as above); and Duvernoy, Le Catharisme: L'Histoire des Cathares and Le Catharisme: La Religion des Cathares. Some Catholic theological historians within the Church have moved away from the previously partisan nature of Catholic historiography and have also pursued historical veracity and scholarship. See, for example, [Elie Griffe], Le Languedoc cathare de 1190 à 1210. Over the last twenty years, however, the heart of this new scholarship has been located at the Centre national d'études cathares -- René Nelli (CNEC) in Carcassonne, Languedoc. This organization encourages the study of Catharism and supports a very impressive collection of erudite studies and documentation about Catharism. Two of the most prominent of the new generation of Cathar historians to be associated with the CNEC are [Michel Roquebert], L'Epopée cathare, and Anne Brenon, Le Vrai Visage du Catharisme.
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