[1] As a haven for Cathars, Montségur gained symbolic and strategic importance in the resistance fight against the Catholic Church and the French forces in subsequent years.

[3] In the context of Occitan resistance and possibly linked to Raymond’s efforts to free himself from the chains of the Paris Treaty, two representatives of the Inquisition, William Arnald and Stephen de Saint-Thibéry, as well as their companions and retinue were murdered by about fifty men from Montségur and dispossessed faidits at Avignonet on 28 May 1242.

In May 1243, the seneschal Hugues des Arcis led the military command of about 10,000 royal troops against the castle that was held by about 100 fighters and was home to perfecti (who as pacifists did not participate in combat) and civilian refugees.

Thus eventually it was decided to attack the place directly, a difficult task due to its well protected location high on a massive limestone rock.

[citation needed] The remainder of the defenders, including those who had participated in the murder of the inquisitors, were allowed to leave, among them Raymond de Pereille who was later, like others, subjected to the Inquisition.

It has been claimed that three or four perfecti survived; they left the castle by a secret route to recover a treasure of the Cathars that had been buried in a nearby forest in the weeks prior to the surrender.

Catharism continued in the Languedoc for many decades but it had lost its organization, and, under the pressure of the Inquisition, adherents if not captured moved to other places, such as Spain and Italy, where conditions were less oppressive.