Abstract

Somehow inspired by the “Sermon on the Mount” in the Gospel according to St Matthew, Leo Tolstoy (1894) brought out how passive resistance is sometimes used to oppose repression, and applied the resulting insights to better describe the popular resistance against the repressive regimes of his time, in Russia and elsewhere in Europe. The present paper tries to bring out how the so-called Cathar Heresy in medieval Languedoc, which was deeply influenced by the same reference from the Gospel, and its resilience despite its brutal repression by the lay institutions on behalf of the Inquisition, can be understood using a simple theoretical framework quite similar to Tolstoy’s one in some respect. A very simple formal model is used here to capture the interaction chains linking the Heretics, the Clerics, and the Lay population. It emphasizes how the selfless behavior of the ‘pure’, i.e., the “good men”, unsettles the mental comfort of the hypocrites, and contributes to shape up the “Clerical equilibrium”.

Reference

Jean-Paul Azam, “Heretics as Scapegoats: Theory with References to Medieval Languedoc. A Rational-Choice Strategic Diagnosis”, IAST Lunch Seminar, Toulouse: IAST, October 2, 2026, 12:45–13:45, room Auditorium 4 (first floor - TSE building).