Talk:Guillaume Bélibaste

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Bias?

Is this information from records of Inquisition interrogations or accusations? It seems to offer a rather negative overview of Guillaume Bélibaste's life (admittedly, I have no data to the contrary). Is this historical or medieval anti-Catharism propaganda? 128.195.186.29 13:56, 24 August 2007 (UTC)Adieu[reply]

The immediate source is Le Roy Ladurie's Montaillou, which includes a section of biographies. His whole book is based principally on Inquisition interrogations recorded verbatim at great length. So the ultimate sources are the reported words of Bélibaste himself and his contacts.

The information should be judged as (a) likely to be positive because it's what those people said about themselves, but (b) also likely to be negative because they were giving answers to (very) unsympathetic questions. With luck, thanks to the work of Le Roy Ladurie and others, the result might approach a kind of neutrality. And you "have no data to the contrary" because there is no data to the contrary! There is no other source on Bélibaste's life. He may have been a persuasive and inspiring figure -- indeed, he must have been -- but it's not verifiable. The interrogators didn't ask that, so there is no one to tell us so. Andrew Dalby 18:01, 30 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]