Abstract This paper explains that, in her poem 'The Call', Canadian poet Susan McCaslin relates the experience of mental illness to the Cathars, a religious group concentrated in France in the eleventh century. The paper points out that the inquisition and oppressive pursuit of the open-minded Cathars is used by McCaslin as a metaphor to describe mental illness. The paper stresses that, although the poem and the book are not entirely an autobiography, McCaslin is the daughter of a mentally ill woman whose tumultuous driving mental voices impact on everyone around her.
From the Paper "McCaslin's historical references continue in the third stanza, where the schizophrenic voices that pursue the mother "blazon" her face, an old-fashioned word associated with heraldry, of officers of arms. A blazon is a description of a coat of arms or flag used to depict an image, typically involving banners or seals. Such formal, historical imagery is conveyed by McCaslin to represent the mother's mental state, which the woman carries around as a logo - a logo which automatically exempts her from deserving love from Canadian society as a whole."
Abstract This paper considers the period of c.1100 - 1215, which was an epoch that was marked by the Catholic Church's war against heretics. The paper first identifies the three different heretical movements and then reflects upon the means that the Church used to try and defeat these movements, religious groups, and apparent sects, In the conclusion, the paper attempts to determine the degree of success that was achieved.
Outline:
Introduction
Historical Heretic Movements
The Waldensian Heresy
Bolomilism, Paulicianism, and Manichaeism
The Cathars Conclusion
From the Paper "The Cathars, who mainly inhabited the Languedoc region of France, were also an alternative and popular movement that experienced spectacular success in attaining conversions. A phenomenon, such as had not been seen by the Roman Church since the early days of Christianity, the belief was rapidly expanding throughout and beyond the southern regions of France. The threat of this was so great that the Church offered "legally sanctioned dominion over conquered lands to northern French nobles and the King of France" (The Chronicle of William of Puylaurens, Introduction, 2003). Therefore, political and economic gain were important contributing factors, with royalty essentially behaving as Catholic mercenaries, who then received whole areas of France."
