THE TREASURE OF MONTSÉGUR

Historical about a heretical sect of Catholics in 13th-century France, a tale imbued with Burnham’s trademark enthusiasm for religious spiritualism (The President’s Angel, 1993, etc.).

Jeanne, a haggard, half-mad old woman in her 40s (old for the 13th century) wanders the countryside, hiding from Dominican inquisitors, remembering bits of her past. When she meets a simple farmer, Jerome, he takes her in, and she shares her history as they make tentative steps toward a life together. Raised by the Cathars after being orphaned in the 1209 massacre of Beziérs in the Languedoc region, Jeanne was brought up by Lady Esclarmonde, a real historical figure, within the Cathar faith that mixed strands of mysticism, asceticism and populism. At 13, after an act of mean-spiritedness, Jeanne was sent to the saintly Bishop of Montségur for instruction, and at Montségur, she met William, a former English crusader. They fell in love, but Jeanne was forced into an arranged marriage while William wound up wed to Baiona, Jeanne’s long-suffering best friend. Five years later, after Jeanne divorced her husband for sleeping with his sister, she encountered William again. This time, they began a long-term affair that ended only when she became pregnant and William arranged for her to marry another out of convenience. Meanwhile, the Cathar way of life was being threatened by a combination of Catholic intolerance and French nationalism. At the siege of Montségur, where the Cathars were destroyed, Jeanne found herself united with William and Baiona, her two great loves, both later burned as heretics while she gave up martyrdom to help hide the Cathar treasure. Now, just as she is about to set off to find the treasure and begin a life with Jerome (who half believes her stories), Jeanne is denounced to the inquisitors.

Burnham, who makes no secret of siding with the Cathars, mixes romance with religious history in an evocative prose that should thrill the spiritually intrigued.