The Cathars

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Arriving in the Languedoc region of southern France as early as the 11th century, Cathars (deriving from the Greek Katharoi, meaning ‘pure ones’) were dualist, gnostic Christians. Their doctrine, which stated that two opposing deities existed, was antithetical to the doctrine of the medieval Catholic Church, which held that God alone created the physical and spiritual worlds. It was during the 13th century that organized persecution of the Cathar faith reached a climax: in 1209 Pope Innocent III abandoned efforts to peacefully convert the Cathars in southern France, and instead launched the Albigensian Crusade to wipe out the heretics through military might. Over the next century and a half, the Cathars were systematically eradicated through forced conversion, inquisitions and massacres.

 

The Cathar religion was entirely unique due to its mixing of several previously disavowed heresies. Gnosticism was at the core of Catharism because of the main belief that the world was influenced by a struggle between a good and an evil deity. This cosmology was influenced by the idea that the tone and themes of the Old Testament are different from that of the New Testament. Gnostics argued that the God mentioned in each section was not the same. Specifically, Gnostics argued that the Old Testament God who created the world was evil while the God of Jesus was good. This doctrine guided most of the Cathars' other beliefs, including the understanding that everything in the material world was evil.

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The Cathars were a unique religious group in medieval Europe because their beliefs were unlike any other faith popular at the time.

Some of these included:

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• The material world is evil

• The God of the Old Testament is evil

• The God of the New Testament is good

• There was a cycle of reincarnation until one renounced the material world

• A belief in Sabellianism rather than the trinity

• A mostly pescatarian diet

 

Cathars clearly regarded themselves as good Christians, since that is exactly what they called themselves.  On the surface, their basic beliefs seem unremarkable.  Most people would have difficulty in distinguishing the principle Cathar beliefs from what are now regarded as conventional orthodox Christian beliefs.   However, pursuing their fundamental beliefs to their logical conclusion revealed surprising implications (for example that Roman Catholics were mistakenly following a Satanic god rather than the beneficent god worshipped by the Cathars.) 

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Like the earliest Christians, Cathars recognised no priesthood.  They did however distinguish between ordinary believers (Credentes) and a smaller, inner circle of leaders initiated in secret knowledge, known at the time as Boni Homines, Bonneshommes or "Goodmen" , now generally referred to as the Elect or as Parfaits.

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The Cathar lived simply, had no possessions, imposed no taxes or penalties, and regarded men and women as equals; aspects of the faith which appealed to many at the time disillusioned with the Church.

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Cathars had a Church hierarchy and a number of rites and ceremonies. They believed in reincarnation, and in heaven, but not in hell as it is now normally conceived by mainstream Christians.

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Cathars believed that Satan had tricked a number of angels into falling from heaven and then encased them in bodies. The purpose of life was to renounce the pleasures and enticements of the world and, through repeated incarnations, make one's way back to heaven. To this end, the Cathars observed a strict hierarchy:

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• Perfecti – those who had renounced the world, the priests and bishops

• Credentes – believers who still interacted with the world but worked toward renunciation

• Sympathizers – non-believers who aided and supported Cathar communities

 

Cathars rejected the teachings of the Catholic Church as immoral and most of the books of the Bible as inspired by Satan. They rejected the Church for what they saw as hypocrisy of the clergy and the Church's acquisition of land and wealth. The Church responded by condemning the Cathars as heretical and they were massacred in the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229) which also devastated the towns, cities, and culture of southern France.

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The Cathar view was that their theology was older than that of the Roman Church and that the Roman Church had corrupted its own scripture, invented new doctrine and abandoned the beliefs and practices of the Early Church.  The Catholic view, of course was exactly the opposite, they imagined Catharism to be a badly distorted version of Catholicism. In addition to accusing the Cathars of faulty theology, they imagined a range abominable practices which would have been amusing except that, converted into propaganda, they led to the death of countless thousands through the Cathar Crusades and the Inquisition.

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The Catholic Church seemed to have successfully extirpated Cathars and Cathar beliefs by the early fourteenth century, but the truth is more complicated.  For one thing, modern historians have shown that many Catholic claims were false, while they have vindicated many Cathar claims; and there is a case that the Cathar legacy is more influential today than has been at any time over the last seven hundred years.

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The Cathars vs. Catholicism

Cathar practices were often in direct contradiction to how the Catholic Church conducted business, especially with regards to the issues of poverty and the moral character of priests. The Cathars believed that everyone should be able to read the Bible, translating into the local language. Because of this, the Synod of Toulouse in 1229 expressly condemned such translations and even forbade lay people to own a Bible.

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Treatment of the Cathars by the Catholics was atrocious. Secular rulers were used to torture and maim the heretics, and anyone who refused to do this was themselves punished. The Fourth Lateran Council, which authorized the state to punish religious dissenters, also authorized the state to confiscate all the land and property of the Cathars, resulting in a very nice incentive for state officials to do the church's bidding.

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Crusade Against the Cathars

Innocent III launched a Crusade against the Cathar heretics, turning the suppression into a full military campaign. Innocent had appointed Peter of Castelnau as the papal legate responsible for organizing the Catholic opposition to the Cathars, but he was murdered by someone thought to be employed by Raymond VI, the Count of Tolouse and leader of Cathar opposition. This caused the general religious movement against the Cathars to turn into a full-fledged crusade and military campaign.

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The Inquisition

An Inquisition against the Cathars was instituted in 1229. When the Dominicans took over the Inquisition of the Cathars, things only got worse for them. Anyone accused of heresy had no rights, and witnesses who said favorable things about the accused were themselves sometimes accused of heresy.

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