Grazide Lizier née Fauré (fl. 1321) was a

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...

in the

Comté de Foix The County of Foix (french: Comté de Foix, ; oc, Comtat de Fois) was an independent medieval fief in southern France, and later a province of France, whose territory corresponded roughly the eastern part of the modern ''département'' of Ari� ...

in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century. Her home region was known for being

Cathar Catharism (; from the grc, καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. Follow ...

, and, during an anti-Cathar inquisition carried out by Catholic authorities, she was interrogated. A number of facts about her are recorded in the

Fournier Register The Fournier Register is a set of records from the inquisition into heresy run by Jacques Fournier, Bishop of Pamiers between 1318 and 1325. Fournier was later to become Pope Benedict XII. Interrogation Fournier interrogated hundreds of individu ...

, and her life, along with those of her fellow villagers, was analyzed in

Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie Emmanuel Bernard Le Roy Ladurie (, born 19 July 1929) is a French historian whose work is mainly focused upon Languedoc in the ''Ancien Régime'', particularly the history of the peasantry. One of the leading historians of France, Le Roy Ladurie h ...

's ''

Montaillou Montaillou (; oc, Montalhon) is a commune in the Ariège department in the south of France. Its original, medieval location was abandoned and the current village is a short distance away. History The village is best known for being the su ...

''. Grazide was the daughter of Pons and Frabrisse Rives. Her mother was the town

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

seller. At the age of fifteen or sixteen she became mistress to

Pierre Clergue Pierre Clergue was a priest in the village of Montaillou, France in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century. He is the central figure in Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's 1975 book ''Montaillou'', a pioneering work of microhistory. Since then h ...

, the local priest, who, though Grazide insisted she hadn't known at the time, was allegedly her mother's illegitimate cousin. Clergue was known as a local rake, and had many sexual relationships with many women. A year later, at Clergue's behest, Grazide married an elderly local, Pierre Lizier of Montaillou. The affair between her and Clergue continued, however, with the consent of her husband. The marriage lasted only four years with Pierre Lizier dying when Grazide was twenty. Soon after,Grazide also ended the relationship with Pierre Clergue. During her testimony, Grazide stated that she had not believed that having sex with Clergue was a sin. For one thing, Clergue, being a priest, had told her it was not a sin. But, more than that, she simply stated that because she had liked it, and Pierre had liked it, it could not have offended God, so it could not have been a sin. It is not known what happened to Grazide after her testimony.

References

*Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel. ''Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error.'' translated by

Barbara Bray Barbara Bray (née Jacobs; 24 November 1924 – 25 February 2010) was an English translator and critic. Early life Bray was born in Maida Vale, London; her parents had Belgian and Jewish origins. An identical twin (her sister Olive Classe was al ...

. New York: G. Braziller, c1978.

External links

Grazide Lizier's testimony to the inquisition
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lizier, Grazide 13th-century French people 14th-century French people People from Montaillou 13th-century French women 14th-century French women 13th-century women farmers 13th-century farmers 14th-century women farmers 14th-century farmers