The Fire and the Light: A Novel of the Cathars - Tapa blanda

In medieval France, heretics protect an ancient scroll that holds shattering revelations about the Roman Catholic Church. Swept up in the brutal Albigensian Crusade, a charismatic Occitan noblewoman who will become revered as the Cathar Joan of Arc defies a powerful pope and champions her persecuted faith in this historical epic of religious intrigue, crusader knights, troubadour valor, and star-crossed love.

• Foreword Book-of-the-Year Finalist/Honorable Mention Winner for Historical Fiction
• NIEA Award for Best New Fiction
  
• Nautilus Silver Award
• IPPY Silver Award
• Eric Hoffer Award Finalist/Honorable Mention
• Da Vinci Eye Award Finalist 

As the 13th century dawns, Latin Christendom is shaken by spiritual upheaval. In Rome, Pope Innocent III plots to crush a growing pacifist sect whose members believe the Vatican has corrupted Christ's teachings. In the Holy Land, warrior-monks make a disturbing discovery about Jesus of Nazareth. In southern France, roving troubadours sing of a mysterious Holy Grail that offers salvation through the intercession of a worthy lady.

And in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, a charismatic viscountess, Esclarmonde de Foix, is about to challenge the most powerful pontiff in history and hurl the Church into a crisis of divine authority.

Esclarmonde is a popular maiden in Occitania’s fabled Courts of Love, but her idyllic life is thrown into turmoil when she encounters a sect of hunted heretics called Cathars, the Good Men and Good Women. With war clouds gathering over the Languedoc, she must choose between her love for a mysterious Knight Templar and her calling to lead these persecuted descendants of the first Christians. In the tradition of Mary Magdalene, she ordains women as perfectas, teaches esoteric spiritual disciplines, and publicly debates the future leaders of the Inquisition on Christ's suppressed teachings. Desperate to suppress her popular preaching, Pope Innocent III condemns her ex cathedra and launches the only crusade ever declared against fellow Christians.

The outnumbered Occitan defenders of Esclarmonde's Cathar family and followers make their final stand atop Montsegur, a haunting mountain fortress where they protect a secret treasure suspected by some to be the Holy Grail. Their heroic resistance against the Dominican Inquisition and the French crusader army evokes the legendary defiance of the Jewish rebels against the Roman legions at Masada.

The Fire and the Light is a sweeping saga of crusading fanaticism, courtly romance, Vatican intrigue, and monastic conspiracy set during the infamous Albigensian Crusade.

Editorial Praise:

"I loved this book! Mr. Craney has woven a wonderful story around the little known facts and the many myths that surround St. Esclarmonde de Foix and the Cathars at Montsegur. Get thee to a bookseller!" — Rev. Mother Anastasia, Abbess of the Order of St. Esclarmonde

"This book is clearly well-researched, but more importantly for a novel, it tells a thoroughly engrossing story." — Ann K. D. Myers, The Historical Novel Society

“A marvel of a tale, tied quite firmly into what facts there are, and woven deftly into a tapestry touching those facts and connecting them into a tale at once enjoyable and alarming.” — ThoughtsandPlaces Reviews

"Tenets of the Cathar faith are explained and many of Esclarmonde’s mystical experiences beautifully rendered." — Bookcrossing