Crusade Against the Grail - Rennes-le-Chateau Research and ...

100 PART Two
Esclarmonde's name is the symbol of her life: Its true meaning can be roughly
translated as "the light of the Earth" and also as "pure light"— a name that was
born and died with Catharism. She was the light of the Occitan world, the pure
splendor that illuminated the Church of Amor in the darkness of the Middle Ages.
After a prolonged stay in the court of the Viscountess Adelaide, where she
presided over the Minne of Poivert, Esclarmonde married the Viscount Jordan de
Lille y Gimoez. Jordan descended from an old family of Iberian nobility; on his
mother's side, he was related to the house of Comminges, which together with
Foix and Carcassonne dominated the Pyrenees.
We know very little of Esclarmonde's life after her haereticatio. Maybe one
day someone will discover a clue in a Pyrenean cave that will reveal the true story
of this woman who, from the summit of a jagged rock, challenged the greatest
powers of Medieval Europe: the Vatican and the Louvre.
The orthodox world of the thirteenth century named her "the Popess of the
Heretics." Cathar Occitiania called her Esclarmunda.
Esclarmunda, your name means
that you truly give light to the world
and that you are pure having done nothing disloyal
and are thus fully deserving of such a noble name.
GUILHEM DE MONTANHAGOL 7
The figure of Esclarmonde belongs at the same time to history, poetry, and
legend. Poetry has made her into the queen of the faeries of the castle of Monmur,
a legend that was told to me by an old pastor when I was going up to the Tabor
from Montsegur along the trail of the Cathars. Esclarmonde would become known
as "Titania" and "Repanse de Schoye"—the keeper of the Grail.
The historical Esclarmonde de Foix was the lady of the Tabor and of
Montsegur.
Montsegur was Muntsalvaesche and Monmur!