1 i.339. See also iii. 187 for the only weaver whom Bélibaste honours with his company, though he was not a heretic.
1 On the absence or at least unimportance of social distance, see the noblewoman embracing the peasant woman (i.300); the châtelaine frequenting the village women without any suggestion of paternalism or do-gooding; the wife of a trout-fisherman becoming the friend of the squire of Junac (iii.61); the Bélibastes, rich but simple farmers, receiving as guest, without thinking anything of it, the proxy of the Archbishop of Narbonne; and Bernard Clergue, connected in his daily and conjugal life with the peasantry of Montaillou and at the same time with the highest authorities of the Comté de Foix. It was precisely this absence of social distance in Montaillou and the Comté de Foix which made socio-religious conflicts so tragic.
Despite the prestige attached (in upper Ariège), to not working with one’s hands, it is striking to see the way sons of ‘good families’, whether or not compelled to it by reverses of fortune, became artisans without considering themselves dishonoured. See the case of the shoemaker Arnaud Sicre, a notary’s son, and the case of the Authiés, who came from a notary’s family too but adopted the trade of tailor without a qualm.
1 Mme B. Vourzay has made a special study of this aspect of the emigration into Catalonia. See Vourzay (1969), p. 103 for relationships with shopkeepers; pp. 80, 81 and 127 for the poverty and social decline of single women; pp. 85 and 102 for discrimination due to Catalan pride; pp. 100 and 124–5 for the break-up of families; pp. 104 and 117–18 for the tendency for the emancipation of women to break up the closed domus imported from upper Ariège and Montaillou; pp. 100 and 123 for the fall in the number of emigrants, who died frequently and rarely reproduced; and p. 81 for the conflict between generations caused by the emancipation of the young people.
1 ii.45, 46. The peasants, although illiterate, regarded scripture (in every sense of the word) as an essential reference. See the anxious question of Raymond de Laburat, a Catholic farmer excommunicated for non-payment of tithes: ‘Is excommunication to be found in any scripture?’ he asked a priest (ii.318–19). Similarly a miller (i.152): ‘The Resurrection is a proven fact, because the priests say it is written in the records and the books.’
1 See i.375, n. 159.
1 They were Pierre Clergue the priest; his pupil (scolaris); Bernard Clergue; and Prades Tavernier, who stayed for long periods in the village though he did not really belong to it and came from the neighbouring parish. Clergue the priest, his pupil, and perhaps also Bernard Clergue, reputed to be learned, probably also knew some Latin. In all, the literacy rate was about i.6 per cent, including perhaps two or three with a smattering of Latin.
1 The Inquisition made witnesses and accused persons swear on the Gospel (ii.358 and passim). The friends of the homosexual Arnaud de Verniolles swore on some sacred book (iii. 14–50). Less sophisticated people swore on their own head, or on bread and wine or on flour.
1 The conflict between generations dealt with here concerns parents who remained Cathars and refused to be influenced by children who had returned to the Catholic fold.
1 See below, Chapter XIX.