Watercolor, charcoal, plaster on paper

Catholic writers have tried to justify the destruction of the South of France, and in the 19th century, Abbé Vacandard said this, “ The Church, after all, was only defending herself. The Cathari sought to wound her mortally by attacking her doctrine, her hierarchy and her apostolicity. She would have been ruined if their perfidious insinuations, which brought violent disturbance into men’s minds, had prevailed in the end.” All the bloodshed was in vain, because skepticism did reign in the end.

-- Walker, Barbara G., The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1983. Page 195.