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

OBSERVATIONS ON THE THEORETICAL PART 191
been fully brought forward, outlining them with precision and exactness in the
area of the link—to my judgment, overdone—with Catharism of Eastern Europe. I
wish to expressly underscore this.
The present work could not, and did not pretend to be an exhaustive study of
this subject. It is true that it claims to place different aspects within a single
perspective. This has conditioned its composition, which is similar to a travel diary
through the mountains, castles, caves, and books (more or less ancient)—a
structure that will encourage experts to examine the subject material with a
magnifying glass.
I am hoping to bring out a second work soon, a continuation of the present
one, about Conrad von Marburg, the German Inquisitor. In it, I will refer to the
influences of German Catharism on German mysticism into the modern-age
(Novalis) Catharism that had thousands of followers in my native land of Hesse
and the length of the Rhine, from Cologne to Basel. Some ideas already appear in
this work.
I have to thank my teacher in Giessen, Baron von Gall, who first encouraged
me to investigate the subject of the heretics. Years passed until circumstances
allowed me, in an unexpected way, to travel to the Pyrenees and precisely to
Montsegur. After a stay of several weeks in the vicinity of that ruined castle, and
goaded on by the legend that said that the last Cathars were locked in a cave in the
Ariege, I moved to Ornolac in the Sabarthes, where I had the luck to meet as
competent and comprehensive a "Trevrizent" as I could ever imagine: the
specialist in prehistory, Antonin Gadal, custodian of all the caves of the Sabarthes
(with the exception of those found in Niaux and Bedeilhac). Over the years he has
been conducting intense and polished research work. Not only did Monsieur Gadal
arrange for me to undertake, without any inconvenience, all the expeditions that I
felt were necessary in the caves (which are today declared national monuments,
and consequently under special rules for their preservation), but he also put his
rich library and personal museum at my disposal. He indicated that he intends to
publish the results of his investigations sometime soon. Although they are special-
ized works of prehistory and speleology, they will nevertheless serve as complete
support for my affirmations. It is an enormous satisfaction for me to be able to
thank Monsieur Gadal here, and pay homage for his disinterested help.
I would be committing the sin of ingratitude if I did not express