1-157-093 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Albigensian heresy, c1190-1220. St Dominic gives a book of profession of the true Christian faith to an Albigensian envoy. Thrown into a fire, the book is not consumed by flames, while the book of the heretics is. The Albigensians, or Cathars, were a Christian sect that first appeared in southern France in the 1020s. Regarded as heretics by the established Church, they were subjected to persecution, culminating in the Albigensian Crusade of 1209-1229, which brutally suppressed the Albigensians. Engraving after predella of the Coronation of the Virgin by Fra Angelico.