Class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays
Session 1 - Tuesday, January 19
Session 2 - Thursday, January 21
Session 3 - Tuesday, January 26
Session 4 - Thursday, January 28

You haven’t heard of Esclarmonde? That’s not surprising. For nearly a thousand years, the Roman church has been trying to erase her memory. In 1911, people in the French town of Foix tried to erect a statue in her memory as the symbol of women’s fight for freedom in their region, but the Bishop of Pamiers, Jean-Marie Vidal, prevented the project.

In 2006, Yves Maris, the founder of Chemins Cathares, was still trying to have her statue installed, but to this day there is no statue. Why not?

Esclarmonde was one of the most sought after and beautiful heiresses in southern Europe. Why was she and is she still perceived as such a threat? How did she become one? What did she say or do that was so extraordinary?

This online course will meet for ninety minutes twice weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays for two weeks. We shall first look at the society into which she was born; examine some other contemporary strong women leaders to see why they were not censured; discuss Esclarmonde’s life and see why her actions and words so threatened the status quo. The format will include lectures, discussions, and live performance of songs of the period. Because any extant information on Esclarmonde is so biased, either viewing her as a rabble-rousing heretic or as a New Age heroine, any preparatory reading would be a hindrance.