Guillaume Bélibaste

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Guillaume Bélibaste (occitan: Guilhèm Belibasta) is said to have been the last Cathar parfait in Languedoc. He was burned at the stake in 1323, as a result of the Inquisition at Pamiers led by Jacques Fournier (afterwards Pope Benedict XII). Much of Bélibaste's biography can be found in the pages of Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's Montaillou; although Bélibaste never lived at Montaillou he is frequently mentioned in the interrogations of suspected heretics from Montaillou.

He was the son and namesake of Guillaume Bélibaste, a rich farmer at Cubières. After killing a shepherd he had to leave Cubières and became a shepherd himself, and in due course a parfait. As a Cathar preacher he was the pupil of Pierre and Jacques Authié.

He eventually settled in Catalonia at Sant Mateu and Morella, where he made baskets and carding combs and became mentor to a community of Cathars, some of whom had fled persecution in the Languedoc. Others migrated regularly between the two regions. One of the latter was Pierre Maury, a native of Montaillou.

In flagrant violation of the strict celibacy demanded of the Cathar elite, Bélibaste enjoyed normal male/female sexual relations. When, in 1313 his lover, Raymonde Piquier, became pregnant, Bélibaste persuaded Pierre Maury to marry her. Then, a few days later, he dissolved the marriage salvaging his own reputation by making it appear the child was Maury's.

[edit] Bibliography

• Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error. translated by Barbara Bray. New York: G. Braziller, c1978.
• Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, ed., Autour de Montaillou - un village occitan; histoire et religiosité d'une communauté villageoise au Moyen Âge. Actes du colloque de Montaillou (25-26-27 août 2000). Castelnaud la Chapelle, 2001.