You wrote:
“It seems pretty clear that the only ones accusing them of being heretics were the ones who killed them.”
Who else was there?
“Depending on these same people to accurately record who these “heretics” really were doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Sure it does. We do that in our society all the time. Who do we rely on for information in criminal cases? Most especially the court records and the official investigative files.
“The actions of the aristocrat Raymond gives a little insight. He refused to execute the initial command of Rome to persecute “heresy”. Raymond responded “We have been brought up with these people, we have relations among them, we know that their life is honest; how can we persecute those whom we respect as the most peaceable and loyal of our people?”
And yet his father was WANTED the Albigensians suppressed. Why should I value the words of Raymond VI over Raymond V?
“If these were such a terrible people he would know he lived among them.”
He did know. He knew they murdered innocent people too. He joined in the fight against the Albigensians in 1209. I guess your hero is now a bit tarnished for fighting and killing the people he claimed were so loyal to him? Yeah, I never liked or respected Raymond VI much either. The difference is you just discovered he was a dissembler and selfish, and I always knew.
>>> Who else was there? <<<
According to Gabriel Audisio, the Waldensians (the schimatic Poor of Lyons) preached against the Cathar heresy for decades — even long AFTER Vaudes had been excommunicated and the Church’s persecution of the Poor had begun. See his _The Waldensian Dissent_, pp.13-14, 33.
There is the record of how these people lived in peace. It was only when the RC churches were empty and their priests discredited that the pressure was put on Raymond by Innocent to persecute them. They had lived in peace for centuries. They had no history of expansionism other than evangelizing.
The claims of them holding to wild beliefs were a justification for barbaric behaviour by savages like Dominic not a truth.