Isarn or Izarn was a 13th-century French Dominican

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

inquisitor An inquisitor was an official (usually with judicial or investigative functions) in an inquisition – an organization or program intended to eliminate heresy and other things contrary to the doctrine or teachings of the Catholic faith. Literal ...

, and writer. Among his works is a fictitious dialogue between himself and an adherent of

Catharism 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 ...

"News of the Heretic"

Sometime before 1292 Isarn wrote a 700-verse poetic dialogue in

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language Occitan (; o ...

between himself and a fictitious Cathar bishop named Sicart de Figueiras. ''Novas del eretge'' ("News of the Heretic"), or ''The Controversy of Izarn, with an Albigense Theologian'', as it is known, is a long diatribe against Catharism and its alleged doctrines. Isarn is sometimes inaccurate, but his ignorance, and that of many Catholics, as to the particulars of Cathar dogma, is probably the result of the meetings in thickets and bushes which he describes. The Cathars, in order to preach in the vernacular from vernacular Scriptures, often held secret meetings in the woods to escape notice. Isarn seems to believe that Cathars and

Waldensians The Waldensians (also known as Waldenses (), Vallenses, Valdesi or Vaudois) are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the "Poor Men of Lyon" in ...

both believe some form of

Manichaeism Manichaeism (; in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...

. He defends marriage against virginity as the supreme chastity. He is convinced moreover that the ''Ja no fara crezens heretje ni baudes / Si agues bon pastor que lur contradisses'' ("Yet they would not believe heretics (Cathars) or Waldensians / If they had a good pastor to contradict them he heretics). At the end of the dialogue, the Cathar bishop is converted. Isarn initially portrays the converted heretic as desirous to keep his conversion a secret so that he may easily teach his followers the true faith. Isarn does not let this play out; he soon portrays the bishop as a copy of his own rabid Catholicism.

References

* Jeanroy, Alfred. ''La poésie lyrique des troubadours''. Toulouse: Privat, 1934. *

Meyer, Paul Paul Meyer may refer to: * Paul Meyer (clarinetist) (born 1965), French clarinetist * Paul Meyer (philologist) (1840–1917), French philologist * Paul Meyer (rower) (born 1922), Swiss rower * Paul Meyer (sport shooter) (born 1961), Zimbabwean spo ...

. "Le débat d'Izarn et de Sicart de Figueiras." ''Annuaire-bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de France'', 16 (1879), 233–285. * Sainte-Palaye, Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de; Dobson, Susannah Dawson, trans
''The Literary History of the Troubadours''.
London: T. Cadell, 1779. {{Authority control Occitan-language writers French Dominicans French Roman Catholic missionaries 13th-century French Roman Catholic priests Inquisitors 13th-century French poets