The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

I. Strange Teachings of Cathari and Albigenses

One of these groups was the Cathari, which spread under various names in Italy as Patarini, Concorrezani, and Bagnoliesi, and in Septimania (southern France) they became known as Albigenses. Here they had become a formidable force by the twelfth century and were able to defy the official church with impunity for a certain period. They enjoyed full protection of the counts of Toulouse and many other nobles. Being fully convinced that the medieval church was totally corrupted, they held that only outside of her could true salvation be found. In 1167 they held a council at St. Felix de Caraman, near Toulouse, where a representative from the East, Nicetas, or Niquinta, consecrated several Cathari bishops by the laying on of hands, the baptism of the spirit, or the consolamentum, as they called it. ² PFF1 808.1

The Albigenses by now had become a force that swept the country, so that Bernard of Clairvaux lamented that the churches were forsaken, and were falling into ruin; the flocks had left the priests, and often had gone over to the heretics. The Albigenses, and other heretical groups, came increasingly into prominence from the twelfth century onward because the church, made more acutely aware of them, and finding ecclesiastical discipline breaking down before the swelling tide of dissent which threatened to overwhelm Catholicism in many areas, felt compelled to devise more effective methods of stamping out the heresy. She used all means at her disposal—persuasion and coercion, preaching and the sword—which led to a terrible crusade of wholesale murder and plunder. And finally came the Inquisition, resulting in the virtually complete extermination of the Albigenses and the laying waste of one of the most flourishing provinces of France to such an extent that it never completely recovered. It may be of interest to list some dates: PFF1 808.2

1148—Council of Rheims: the protectors of the heretics in Gascony and Provence excommunicated. PFF1 809.1

1163—Council of Tours, declaring the Albigenses should be imprisoned and their property confiscated. PFF1 809.2

1165-Disputation at Lombaz, with no agreement. PFF1 809.3

1167-Council of Albigenses at Toulouse. PFF1 809.4

1178-Another attempt at peaceful settlement. PFF1 809.5

1179-Third Lateran Council, summoned to use force against the heretics. PFF1 809.6

1181-82-Crusading army sent against heretics in Langue-doc, with scanty results. PFF1 809.7

1206-Dominic de Guzlan [founder of the Dominicans] goes out with others to preach to the Albigenses; but is, how ever, rebuffed. They affirmed, on his questioning, the identity of the church of Rome with the Babylon of the Apocalypse. ³ PFF1 809.8

1207-The papal legate, Peter of Castelnau, murdered. Innocent III orders crusade; 20,000 knights and 200,000 foot men assemble. War carried on with utmost ruthlessness. After the storming of Beziers 20,000—some say 40,000—were massacred. War turns into a fight between the king of France and the counts of Toulouse. PFF1 809.9

1229—Peace; Septimania becomes a dependency of France. The Inquisition takes over. PFF1 809.10

1250—From the middle of the thirteenth century the name Albigenses gradually disappears. PFF1 810.1

What were the doctrines of the Albigenses that made them so obnoxious in the eyes of the orthodox? The Cathari, of which the Albigenses were a group, likewise had strong connections with Bogomiles in Bulgaria and the Eastern half of the Roman Empire. In these Eastern groups through the influence of Gnosticism and Manichaeism a dualistic view of the universal forces was accepted, and this view was also cherished by the Cathari in general, either in its pure form of two gods, the god of good and of light, and the god of evil and of darkness, or in a somewhat milder form, accepting one supreme god having two sons, Satanael, the elder, and Christ, or Michael, the younger. A whole cosmogonic drama was developed. In one of the phases Christ came from heaven and assumed only a material body; in reality He brought His spiritual body from the higher world, and in this He conquered Satanael, His brother, who had succeeded in seducing a number of angels from the abode of light. PFF1 810.2

The Cathari discarded the Old Testament; they lived by the New. They regarded as deadly sins the possession of property, association with men of this world, lying, war, killing of animals except snakelike creatures, eating of animal food except fishes, and above all, sexual intercourse. Therefore they discouraged marriage. The perfecti (perfected) were very strict, and if, after his admission, a “perfected” should commit a single sin, he would be lost forever. Therefore many preferred suicide by fasting, to life at the risk of everlasting damnation. PFF1 810.3

But these strange Catharist beliefs were not necessarily held by all Albigenses; possibly they were current mostly among the perfectly who in comparison were few in number. The connection between the differing groups of Albigenses and the older Manichaeism is not clear, and Catholic charges against them were likely somewhat exaggerated. Certainly their wide influence stemmed from their upright, unworldly lives, in contrast to the ways of the corrupt Catholic clergy; and undoubtedly many of them—particularly those in contact with Petrobrusians or Waldenses—were true evangelicals, with the dualistic elements reduced to a minimum. At least they were genuine martyrs to their protest against the Roman church, and they attempted, according to their light, to live by New Testament ideals. ⁴ PFF1 810.4