“Que olhassem para o demônio que as havia possuído na forma de um gato": O discurso da igreja papal para a erradicação do catarismo no Languedoc do séc. XIII

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the performance of forces and interests that culminated in the discursive formation of the Cathar imaginary in southern France between 1209 and 1235, a period in which the Albigensian Crusade and other processes of intervention by the Papal Church in the region, such as the pastoral inquisition, took place. Given the unstable context in which such formation took place, characterized by political conflicts between agents of the Papacy, the French monarchy and local forces in the Languedoc region, the methodology used was based on the analysis of Foucault's discourse, highlighting Foucault's (1970) contribution regarding the articulation within discourse analysis between knowledge and power, adding the author's perception of how discourse is capable of causing results that are not necessarily repressive, but rather constitutive and/or truth-creating. This research indicates that the county of Toulouse was marked by internal and external conflicts, which were intensified after the enormous support of that region, including the nobility, to the Cathar heresy, a conflict that reached its highest level in the crusade carried out to eradicate the heresy. The end of the armed conflict came about thanks to the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1229, with 22 clauses that condition the capitulation of that conflict. The aim is to verify, using the perspective of Valentin Voloshinov (2018), especially that of ideological sign, where the author conjectures that the recipient understands them in the way that their individual historical context allows, these signs endorsed to characterize the religious dissidents in that context, are the result of a coordinated action by the papacy in Languedoc to combat heresy, since there is evidence that even after the end of the crusade there were still cases of heresy in that region.