23044. PseudoErasmus--April 29, 19980--9:54 p.m. PT

One of the funny things about the Albigensians is that they were even more prudish than the rest of the Christians--they were really into being above and beyond the flesh and all the crap. And ironically, this Albigensianism flourished alongside the Occitan Troubadour movement--one of the most sensual, carnal and hedonistic literatures of Europe, and rightly celebrated by Ezra Pound. I lament that this flower and genius of vernacular literature was destroyed by the Church.

But I don't really care about the Cathars. I'm glad they were hunted down and its movement extirpated. Can you imagine, had Catharism infected the rest of Europe? European history might have taken a turn for the gooey and misty-eyed mystical mumbo-jumbo.

[For those who have read The Wasteland, T.S. Eliot pens a dedication to Ezra Pound, calling him "il miglior fabbro", or "the greater craftsman". This is lifted from the Divine Comedy, where Dante applied this very honour to Arnaut Daniel, the greatest poet of the Occitan literary renaissance.]