27 October 2003
Italy
One of the best things about writing a book set in interesting places is going there to find out exactly what they look and feel like.
In the background of my novel Labyrinth is a brutal religious genocide. Many Cathars – the persecuted Christians condemned as heretics by the Catholic church – fled to northern Italy. There they may have come to know of John of Lugio, the author of the most important Cathar texts still in existence. He (or one of his students) wrote:
- God, who is good, cannot have created evil, therefore God did not create the World
- Satan, who is evil, can do no good, so the World which is his realm must be evil
- Humankind is not guilty of original sin
– Sin came from Satan
- Humans are victims of predestination and, without free will, cannot be condemned for their sins without hope of forgiveness
- Christ came to earth to remind the souls trapped in Satan's 'tunics of flesh' of their true home in God's kingdom
- The souls created by God are equal and – necessarily – good
- With the passing of time, more and more of God's souls will escape their Earthly prison and return to God
- The end of the world will come when all of God's souls will have made their way back to Heaven
- There will be no Last Judgment for, at the end of the world – the end of Satan's creation – all souls will already have been saved.
I'd like to recommend two books that deal brilliantly – though differently – with the rejuvenation and final destruction of the Cathar church, powered by parfaits returning from Italian exile:
- Montaillou by Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie
- The Yellow Cross by René Weis
The journey through the Labyrinth takes you to many places.
