Morten St George Theory

[Morten St. George]

I have studied the Cathers' for quite some time, and i am curious as to when you think they crossed the Atlantic?

You are asking me to reveal one of the greatest secrets of medieval times which is hardly something that I could know. A massive effort was made to track down the escapees of Montségur (14 March 1244) but neither they nor the great treasure they carried with them were ever found.

In my fantasies, the Spanish Inquisition did find out where those Cathars went but only some two and one half centuries later, possibly revealed to them under torture by a people who were promptly expelled. And at roughly the same time, a decision not to provide funding for a transatlantic crossing was reversed. In the given scenario, Columbus, unbeknownst to him, would have been put out to sea not to reach the Far East but to find the Cathars.

It may seem wholly incredulous that centuries later the Inquisition still wanted to hunt down and kill the Cathars but that reflects ignorance of what was going on. It was perceived as the eternal battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil, though which side was which is a matter of open debate. For the Roman Church, the writings of the Good God of the Cathari were the workings of the Devil Himself and had to be destroyed at all costs.

The Cathars were said to have sympathizers among the Knights Templar, who in the 13th century operated a fleet of ships off the Atlantic coast of France. It is remotely possible that the Knights could have provided a group of Cathars with a boat.

The Cathars also had friends among the Cabalists of Gerona (home of the great Nachmanides until 1263) which lies on the other side of the mountains from Montségur, and there they might have received help for acquiring a boat.

On the other hand, investigations into the origin of VMS encryption point us to the Spanish city of Toledo and to a Spanish king called Alfonso the Wise. Alfonso became king in 1252 and in the following year he conquered southern Portugal, holding possession of that region until 1263. Southern Portugal would have been an ideal point of departure for a transatlantic journey.

In conclusion, we have no idea when that group of Cathar women migrated to America other than it might have been between 1244 and 1263.