1 i.244. A distinction was made between publicly keeping a concubine and having a more or less secret affair with a mistress.
1 i.414. See also the friendly complicity between Mengarde Clergue’s sister and Guillaume Clergue’s concubine. Guillaume was Mengarde’s son and the priest’s brother (i.222).
2 Such is the case with Bernard Belot, Raymond Ros and Arnaud Vital. Pathau Clergue is not listed as a heretic, but Pierre Clergue, who succeeded him in Béatrice’s favours, was as heterodox as anyone could be.
3 i. 224–5. The argument of the sophist Pierre Clergue is based on the following two ideas. (a) Making love is in any case a sin for a woman, whether with her husband or with a lover. With her husband it is even worse, because they do not know that they are sinning. Therefore, ladies, take lovers. (b) In any case, if one is received by a parfait on one’s deathbed all one’s sins are done away with. Why worry about sinning then? (Clergue’s anarchical extremism is not typical of the average outlook of the ordinary people of upper Ariège, even if they were Cathars.)
1 See R. Nelli (1963), pp. 108–09.
2 See also iii.267–8 for the many bastards, both of priests and laymen, in the Junac area.
1 i.416. See also the case of Guillot, bastard son of the priest of Mérens. Despite his natural father’s comparatively comfortable position, Guillot was a mere goatherd, employed by Na Ferriola of Mérens (iii. 163).
2 ii.227. Arnaud Clergue also took on the job of doing the errands of his uncle, the priest, in the village (i.476).
1 i.302. See also Chapter IX. On bastards, who were quite numerous among the bourgeoisie in upper Ariège, see, for example, ii.197, and ii.209 (bastards of the Authié-Teysseire family).
2 There will never be a time in any of our lives when men don’t sleep with other men’s wives.
1 The village of Tignac supplies other exceptions. In his own house, Arnaud Laufre of Tignac found his wife, Esperte, in bed with his brother Bernard. Arnaud interrupted them just in time (ii.131; see also i.283). But, on the whole, unlawful sexual activity occurred at least ten times as often among girls, widows and unmarried maidservants as among wives.
1 ii.411. For the imprecations of the troubadours against fickle husbands, see R. Nelli (1963), p. 110.
2 Even poor illegitimate servant maids like Brune Pourcel and Raymonde Arsen ended up by finding husbands. There were few spinsters in Montaillou and upper Ariège.