How Does Laudrie View Peasant Life In A Pamier?

In Laudrie's novel, Montaillou¸ the author provided his readers with a window by which to view peasant life in a remote, mountainous village in early 14th century France. Utilizing the Inquisition Register of Jacque Fournier (from 1318-1325, Bishop of Pamiers in Ariege in Comte de Foix, Laudrie weaved an intricate web of personal connections and relationships as he strove to unlock the elusive, accurate portrayal of peasant beliefs, customs, and traditions. This essay will display the research methods of the author and illuminate the major themes of the work. In particular, this analysis will root out the forms of deception undertaken by the villagers of Montaillou in order to advance in power or "free" themselves from the tightening grip
Later becoming Pope Benedict XII, Fournier was originally a bishop in Comte de Foix and was charged with running the Inquisitorial investigations of Pamiers, which centered around the community within Montaillou. This village in Southern France was notorious as a bastion of Catharism, a sect labeled by the Catholic Church to be heretical. In his effort to root out the heresy, he collaborated with the Dominican court at Carcassonne to establish his own inquisitional office. During the inquisitorial procedures, Laudrie was renowned for "worming out the truth" from witness and judging "a heretic from a 'proper' Catholic." Due to this obstinate compulsion of completing all the required work of the Inquisition Register, the document contained a constant level of detail and thoroughness. The Register was built from the 578 interrogations, which occurred between 1318 and 325, and 98 actual cases, with most involving individuals associated with the Cathar heresy. During these proceedings, notaries would simultaneously dictated the witnesses' answers to Fournier's intensive line of questioning. In essence, Fournier analyzed the immense and personal Inquisitorial records of the village of Montaillou to extrapolate the basic components of Occitan culture and peasant
One was the low level of social distance between the noble and non-noble classes. Due to the presence of only one noble family in Montaillou, the Roqueforts, and the relative lack of wealth they possess compared to the noble families of Northern France, there was little rigid distinction between the nobility and peasantry in the village. This was on display with the willingness of the chatelain's wife, Beatrice de Plassioles, to have multiple affairs and become a mistress to a non-noble. Tied to the tight-knit community network of Montaillou was the prevalence of the domus. Described as the "unifying concept in social, family, and cultural life," the domus consisted of a married couple of the house, their parents (if alive), their unmarried children, as well as any unmarried siblings. These strong associated of family ties, through marriage, linked the inhabitants of the village into a large web of interconnecting relationships and affairs. Since the domus was the location of communal activities such as meals and lice removing, it was a vital component in the spread of Catharism within the community. Due to the close inter-family connections, once members of one domus, like Clergues, have strong associations with Cathar prelates, other families associated with their domus would be more inclined to adopt the heresy. Intimately tied to the domus' relationships was the idea of marriage