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Originally Posted by Fumes
Albigensian heresy? The Cathars? (I just finished listening to a lecture series called "The Era of the Crusades"; aside from what I picked up listening to this on my commute I know very little about this time period, but it's fascinating stuff.) Toward the end of the series the lecturer mentions a few things about Frederick II, who sounds like quite a character. Do you have any reading recommendations for non-scholars?
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If you want to read specifically about Cathars, then I recommend "The Yellow Cross" by Rene Weis. There is also "The Cathars" by Sean Martin. There are many "gossip" books about this period, some of which toss in the Templars and other groups in a weird mish-mash as well. For a broader view of the history of religious doctrine, I recommend Jaroslav Pelikan's "The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine", Volume 3, "The Growth of Medieval Theology (600-1300)" which is quite good. An interesting book on the modern interpretation of the middle ages is Noman Cantor's "Inventing the Middle Ages". The book "Europe in the High Middle Ages" by William Jordan is excellent.
This time period is popular with fiction writers, who seem to want to come across as historians, so one has to be quite careful. Good luck!
Note that just because I say a book is good doesn't mean that I think that it is easy to read or digest.