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"Cathar" redirects here. For the Star Wars race, see Cathar (race).
Not to be confused with Cathare or Kathar.

Catharism (/ˈkæθərɪzəm/; from the Greek: καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure [ones]")[1]
[2] was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries
which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern
France. Followers were described as Cathars and referred to themselves as Good
Christians, and are now mainly remembered for a prolonged period of persecution by
the Catholic Church, which did not recognize their unorthodox Christianity.
Catharism arrived in Western Europe in the Languedoc region of France in the 11th
century. The adherents were sometimes referred to as Albigensians, after the city
Albi in southern France where the movement first took hold.[3] The belief may have
originated in the Byzantine Empire. Catharism was initially taught by ascetic
leaders who set few guidelines and so some Catharist practices and beliefs varied
by region and over time. The Catholic Church denounced its practices, including the
consolamentum ritual by which Cathar individuals were baptised and raised to the
status of "Perfect".[4]

Catharism was greatly influenced by the Bogomils of the First Bulgarian Empire,[5]
and may have also had roots in the Paulician movement in Armenia and eastern
Byzantine Anatolia through Paulicians resettled in Thrace (Philipoupolis). Though
the term Cathar (/ˈkæθɑːr/) has been used for centuries to identify the movement,
whether it identified itself with the name is debated.[6] In Cathar texts, the
terms Good Men (Bons Hommes), Good Women (Bonnes Femmes), or Good Christians (Bons
Chrétiens) are the common terms of self-identification.[7]

The idea of two gods or deistic principles, one good and the other evil, was a
point of criticism asserted by the Catholic church against Cathar beliefs. The
Catholic church asserted this was antithetical to monotheism, a fundamental
principle that there is only one God, who created all things visible and invisible.
[8] Cathars believed that the good God was the God of the New Testament, creator of
the spiritual realm, whereas the evil God was the God of the Old Testament, creator
of the physical world whom many Cathars identified as Satan. Cathars believed human
spirits were the sexless spirits of angels trapped in the material realm of the
evil god, destined to be reincarnated until they achieved salvation through the
consolamentum, a form of baptism performed when death is imminent, when they would
return to the good God.[9]

From the beginning of his reign, Pope Innocent III attempted to end Catharism by
sending missionaries and by persuading the local authorities to act against them.
In 1208, Pierre de Castelnau, Innocent's papal legate, was murdered while returning
to Rome after excommunicating Count Raymond VI of Toulouse, who, in his view, was
too lenient with the Cathars.[10] Pope Innocent III then abandoned the option of
sending Catholic missionaries and jurists, declared Pierre de Castelnau a martyr
and launched the Albigensian Crusade in 1209. The Crusade ended in 1229 with the
defeat of the Cathars. Catharism underwent persecution by the Medieval Inquisition,
which succeeded in eradicating it by 1350.

There is academic controversy about whether Catharism was an organized movement or

rather a construct of the medieval Church, which alleged the existence of a
heretical group. The lack of any central organization among Cathars, regional
differences in beliefs and practices as well as the lack of sources from the
Cathars themselves has prompted some scholars to question whether Catharism
existed. Other scholars say that there is evidence of the existence of Catharism,
and also evidence that the threat of it was exaggerated by its persecutors in the
Church.[11]
OriginsEdit

The origins of the Cathars' beliefs are unclear, but most theories agree they came
from the Byzantine Empire, mostly by the trade routes and spread from the First
Bulgarian Empire to the Netherlands. The name of Bulgarians (Bougres) was also
applied to the Albigensians, and they maintained an association with the similar
Christian movement of the Bogomils ("Friends of God") of Thrace. "That there was a
substantial transmission of ritual and ideas from Bogomilism to Catharism is beyond
reasonable doubt."[12] Their doctrines have numerous resemblances to those of the
Bogomils and the Paulicians, who influenced them,[13] as well as the earlier
Marcionites, who were found in the same areas as the Paulicians, the Manicheans and
the Christian Gnostics of the first few centuries AD, although, as many scholars,
most notably Mark Pegg, have pointed out, it would be erroneous to extrapolate
direct, historical connections based on theoretical similarities perceived by
modern scholars.

John Damascene, writing in the 8th century AD, also notes of an earlier sect called
the "Cathari", in his book On Heresies, taken from the epitome provided by
Epiphanius of Salamis in his Panarion. He says of them: "They absolutely reject
those who marry a second time, and reject the possibility of penance [that is,
forgiveness of sins after baptism]".[14] These are probably the same Cathari
(actually Novations) who are mentioned in Canon 8 of the First Ecumenical Council
of Nicaea in the year 325, which states "... [I]f those called Cathari come over
[to the faith], let them first make profession that they are willing to communicate
[share full communion] with the twice-married, and grant pardon to those who have
lapsed ..."[15]

A map signifying the routes of the Cathar castles (blue squares and lines) in the
south of France around the turn of the 13th century

The writings of the Cathars were mostly destroyed because of the doctrine's threat
perceived by the Papacy;[16] thus, the historical record of the Cathars is derived
primarily from their opponents. Cathar ideology continues to be debated, with
commentators regularly accusing opposing perspectives of speculation, distortion
and bias. Only a few texts of the Cathars remain, as preserved by their opponents
(such as the Rituel Cathare de Lyon) which give a glimpse into the ideologies of
their faith.[13] One large text has survived, The Book of Two Principles (Liber de
duobus principiis),[17] which elaborates the principles of dualistic theology from
the point of view of some Albanenses Cathars.[18]

It is now generally agreed by most scholars that identifiable historical Catharism

did not emerge until at least 1143, when the first confirmed report of a group
espousing similar beliefs is reported being active at Cologne by the cleric Eberwin
of Steinfeld.[19] A landmark in the "institutional history" of the Cathars was the
Council, held in 1167 at Saint-Félix-Lauragais, attended by many local figures and
also by the Bogomil papa Nicetas, the Cathar bishop of (northern) France and a
leader of the Cathars of Lombardy.

The Cathars were a largely local, Western European/Latin Christian phenomenon,

springing up in the Rhineland cities (particularly Cologne) in the mid-12th
century, northern France around the same time, and particularly the Languedoc—and
the northern Italian cities in the mid-late 12th century. In the Languedoc and
northern Italy, the Cathars attained their greatest popularity, surviving in the
Languedoc, in much reduced form, up to around 1325 and in the Italian cities until
the Inquisitions of the 14th century finally extirpated them.[20]
BeliefsEdit
CosmologyEdit
War in heaven. Illustration by Gustave Doré

Cathar cosmology identified two twin, opposing deities. The first was a good God,
portrayed in the New Testament and creator of the spirit, while the second was an
evil God, depicted in the Old Testament and creator of matter and the physical
world.[21] The latter, often called Rex Mundi ("King of the World"),[22] was
identified as the God of Judaism,[21] and was also either conflated with Satan or
considered Satan's father, creator or seducer.[5] They addressed the problem of
evil by stating that the good God's power to do good was limited by the evil God's
works and vice versa.[23]

However, those beliefs were far from unanimous. Some Cathar communities believed in
a mitigated dualism similar to their Bogomil predecessors, stating that the evil
god, Satan, had previously been the true God's servant before rebelling against
him.[23] Others, likely a majority over time given the influence reflected on the
Book of the Two Principles,[24] believed in an absolute dualism, where the two gods
were twin entities of the same power and importance.[23]

All visible matter, including the human body, was created or crafted by this Rex
Mundi; matter was therefore tainted with sin. Under this view, humans were actually
angels seduced by Satan before a war in heaven against the army of Michael, after
which they would have been forced to spend an eternity trapped in the evil God's
material realm.[5] The Cathars taught that to regain angelic status one had to
renounce the material self completely. Until one was prepared to do so, they would
be stuck in a cycle of reincarnation, condemned to live on the corrupt Earth.[25]

Zoé Oldenbourg compared the Cathars to "Western Buddhists" because she considered
that their view of the doctrine of "resurrection" taught by Christ was similar to
the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth.[26][self-published source]
ChristologyEdit

Cathars venerated Jesus Christ and followed what they considered to be his true
teachings, labelling themselves as "Good Christians."[7] However, they denied his
physical incarnation.[27] Authors believe that their conception of Jesus resembled
docetism, believing him the human form of an angel,[28] whose physical body was
only an appearance.[29] This illusory form would have possibly been given by the
Virgin Mary, another angel in human form,[23] or possibly a human born from an
immaculate conception herself.[24]

St. Paul, by Valentin de Boulogne.

They firmly rejected the Resurrection of Jesus, seeing it as representing

reincarnation, and the Christian symbol of the cross, considering it to be not more
than a material instrument of torture and evil. They also saw John the Baptist,
identified also with Elijah, as an evil being sent to hinder Jesus's teaching
through the false sacrament of baptism.[5]

Most Cathars did not accept the normative Trinitarian understanding of Jesus,
instead resembling nontrinitarian modalistic monarchianism (Sabellianism) in the
West and adoptionism in the East, which might or might not be combined with the
mentioned docetism.[30] Bernard of Clairvaux's biographer and other sources accuse
some Cathars of Arianism,[31][32] and some scholars see Cathar Christology as
having traces of earlier Arian roots.[33][34]

Some communities might have believed in the existence of a spirit realm created by
the good God, the "Land of the Living", whose history and geography would have
served as the basis for the evil god's corrupt creation. Under this view, the
history of Jesus would have happened roughly as told, only in the spirit realm.[21]
The physical Jesus from the material world would have been evil, a false messiah
and a lustful lover of the material Mary Magdalene. However, the true Jesus would
have influenced the physical world in a way similar to the Harrowing of Hell, only
by inhabiting the body of Paul.[21] 13th century chronicler Pierre des Vaux-de-
Cernay recorded those views.[21]
Other beliefsEdit

The Fall of the Rebel Angels by Hieronymus Bosch.

Some Cathars told a version of the Enochian narrative, according to which Eve's
daughters copulated with Satan's demons and bore giants. The Deluge would have been
provoked by Satan, who disapproved of the demons revealing he was not the real god,
or alternatively, an attempt by the Invisible Father to destroy the giants.[24] The
Holy Spirit was sometimes counted as one single entity, but to others it was
considered the collective groups of unfallen angels who had not followed Satan in
his rebellion.

Despite the usual Cathar stance on sex and reproduction, some Cathar communities
made exceptions. In one version, the Invisible Father had two spiritual wives,
Collam and Hoolibam (identified with Oholah and Oholibah), and would himself have
provoked the war in heaven by seducing the wife of Satan, or perhaps the reverse.
Cathars adhering to this story would believe that having families and sons would
not impede them from reaching God's kingdom.[24]

Some communities also believed in a Day of Judgement that would come when the
number of the just equalled that of angels who fell, when the believers would
ascend to the spirit realm, while the sinners would be thrown to everlasting fire
along with Satan.[23]

The Cathars ate a pescatarian diet. They did not eat cheese, eggs, meat, or milk
because these are all by-products of sexual intercourse.[35] The Cathars believed
that animals were carriers of reincarnated souls, and forbade the killing of all
animal life, apart from fish,[35][36] which they believed were produced by
spontaneous generation.[36]
TextsEdit

The alleged sacred texts of the Cathars, besides the New Testament, included the
previously Bogomil text The Gospel of the Secret Supper (also called John's
Interrogation), a modified version of Ascension of Isaiah, and the Cathar original
work The Book of the Two Principles (possibly penned by Italian Cathar John Lugio
of Bergamo).[24][37] They regarded the Old Testament as written by Satan, except
for a few books which they accepted,[5] and considered the Book of Revelation not a
prophecy about the future, but an allegorical chronicle of what had transpired in
Satan's rebellion. Their reinterpretation of those texts contained numerous
elements characteristic of Gnostic literature.[24]
OrganizationEdit
SacramentsEdit

Cathars, in general, formed an anti-sacerdotal party in opposition to the pre-

Reformation Catholic Church, protesting against what they perceived to be the
moral, spiritual and political corruption of the Church.[13] In contrast, the
Cathars had but one central rite, the Consolamentum, or Consolation. This involved
a brief spiritual ceremony to remove all sin from the believer and to induct him
into the next higher level as a Perfect.[38]

Many believers would receive the Consolamentum as death drew near, performing the
ritual of liberation at a moment when the heavy obligations of purity required of
Perfecti would be temporally short. Some of those who received the sacrament of the
consolamentum upon their death-beds may thereafter have shunned further food or
drink and, more often and in addition, expose themselves to extreme cold, in order
to speed death. This has been termed the endura.[39] It was claimed by some of the
church writers that when a Cathar, after receiving the Consolamentum, began to show
signs of recovery he or she would be smothered in order to ensure his or her entry
into paradise. Other than at such moments of extremis, little evidence exists to
suggest this was a common Cathar practice.[40]

Painting by Pedro Berruguete portraying the story of a disputation between Saint

Dominic and the Cathars (Albigensians), in which the books of both were thrown on a
fire and Dominic's books were miraculously preserved from the flames.

The Cathars also refused the sacrament of the eucharist, saying that it could not
possibly be the body of Christ. They also refused to partake in the practice of
Baptism by water. The following two quotes are taken from the Inquisitor Bernard
Gui's experiences with the Cathar practices and beliefs:

Then they attack and vituperate, in turn, all the sacraments of the Church,
especially the sacrament of the eucharist, saying that it cannot contain the body
of Christ, for had this been as great as the largest mountain Christians would have
entirely consumed it before this. They assert that the host comes from straw, that
it passes through the tails of horses, to wit, when the flour is cleaned by a sieve
(of horse hair); that, moreover, it passes through the body and comes to a vile
end, which, they say, could not happen if God were in it.[41] Of baptism, they
assert that the water is material and corruptible and is therefore the creation of
the evil power, and cannot sanctify the spirit, but that the churchmen sell this
water out of avarice, just as they sell earth for the burial of the dead, and oil
to the sick when they anoint them, and as they sell the confession of sins as made
to the priests.[41]

Social relationshipsEdit

Killing was abhorrent to the Cathars. Consequently, abstention from all animal food
(sometimes exempting fish) was enjoined of the Perfecti. The Perfecti avoided
eating anything considered to be a by-product of sexual reproduction.[38] War and
capital punishment were also condemned—an abnormality in Medieval Europe. In a
world where few could read, their rejection of oath-taking marked them as rebels
against social order.

To the Cathars, reproduction was a moral evil to be avoided, as it continued the

chain of reincarnation and suffering in the material world. It was claimed by their
opponents that, given this loathing for procreation, they generally resorted to
sodomy.[clarification needed] Such was the situation that a charge of heresy
leveled against a suspected Cathar was usually dismissed if the accused could show
he was legally married.

When Bishop Fulk of Toulouse, a key leader of the anti-Cathar persecutions,

excoriated the Languedoc Knights for not pursuing the heretics more diligently, he
received the reply, "We cannot. We have been reared in their midst. We have
relatives among them and we see them living lives of perfection."[42]
HierarchyEdit

It has been alleged that the Cathar Church of the Languedoc had a relatively flat
structure, distinguishing between the baptised Perfecti (a term they did not use;
instead, bonhommes) and ordinary unbaptised believers (credentes).[38] By about
1140, liturgy and a system of doctrine had been established.[43] They created a
number of bishoprics, first at Albi around 1165[44] and after the 1167 Council at
Saint-Félix-Lauragais sites at Toulouse, Carcassonne, and Agen, so that four
bishoprics were in existence by 1200.[38][43][45][46] In about 1225, during a lull
in the Albigensian Crusade, the bishopric of Razès was added. Bishops were
supported by their two assistants: a filius maior (typically the successor) and a
filius minor, who were further assisted by deacons.[47] The Perfecti were the
spiritual elite, highly respected by many of the local people, leading a life of
austerity and charity.[38] In the apostolic fashion, they ministered to the people
and travelled in pairs.[38]
Role of women and sexEdit

Cathars being expelled from Carcassonne in 1209.

Catharism has been seen as giving women the greatest opportunities for independent
action, since women were found as being believers as well as Perfecti, who were
able to administer the sacrament of the consolamentum.[48]

Cathars believed that a person would be repeatedly reincarnated until they

committed to self-denial of the material world. A man could be reincarnated as a
woman and vice versa.[49] The spirit was of utmost importance to the Cathars and
was described as being immaterial and sexless.[49] Because of this belief, the
Cathars saw women as equally capable of being spiritual leaders.[50]

Women accused of being heretics in early medieval Christianity included those

labeled Gnostics, Cathars, and, later, the Beguines, as well as several other
groups that were sometimes "tortured and executed".[51] Cathars, like the Gnostics
who preceded them, assigned more importance to the role of Mary Magdalene in the
spread of early Christianity than the church previously did. Her vital role as a
teacher contributed to the Cathar belief that women could serve as spiritual
leaders. Women were found to be included in the Perfecti in significant numbers,
with numerous receiving the consolamentum after being widowed.[48] Having reverence
for the Gospel of John, the Cathars saw Mary Magdalene as perhaps even more
important than Saint Peter, the founder of the church.[52]

Catharism attracted numerous women with the promise of a leadership role that the
Catholic Church did not allow.[9] Catharism let women become a Perfect.[53] These
female Perfects were required to adhere to a strict and ascetic lifestyle, but were
still able to have their own houses.[54] Although many women found something
attractive in Catharism, not all found its teachings convincing. A notable example
is Hildegard of Bingen, who in 1163 gave a rousing exhortation against the Cathars
in Cologne. During this discourse, Hildegard announced God's eternal damnation on
all who accepted Cathar beliefs.[55]

While women Perfects rarely traveled to preach the faith, they still played a vital
role in the spreading of Catharism by establishing group homes for women.[56]
Though it was extremely uncommon, there were isolated cases of female Cathars
leaving their homes to spread the faith.[57] In Cathar communal homes (ostals),
women were educated in the faith, and these women would go on to bear children who
would then also become believers. Through this pattern, the faith grew
exponentially through the efforts of women as each generation passed.[56]

Despite women having a role in the growth of the faith, Catharism was not
completely equal; for example, the belief that one's last incarnation had to be
experienced as a man to break the cycle.[42] This belief was inspired by later
French Cathars, who taught that women must be reborn as men in order to achieve
salvation.[9] Another example was the belief that the sexual allure of women
impeded a man's ability to reject the material world.[42] Toward the end of the
Cathar movement, Catharism became less equal and started the practice of excluding
women Perfects.[9] However, this trend remained limited. (Later on. Italian
Perfects still included women.[9]
SuppressionEdit
Cathars being burnt at the stake in an auto-da-fé, anachronistically presided over
by Saint Dominic, as depicted by Pedro Berruguete

In 1147, Pope Eugene III sent a legate to the Cathar district in order to arrest
the progress of the Cathars. The few isolated successes of Bernard of Clairvaux
could not obscure the poor results of this mission, which clearly showed the power
of the sect in the Languedoc at that period. The missions of Cardinal Peter of
Saint Chrysogonus to Toulouse and the Toulousain in 1178, and of Henry of Marcy,
cardinal-bishop of Albano, in 1180–81, obtained merely momentary successes.[13]
Henry's armed expedition, which took the stronghold at Lavaur, did not extinguish
the movement.

Decisions of Catholic Church councils—in particular, those of the Council of Tours

(1163) and of the Third Council of the Lateran (1179)—had scarcely more effect upon
the Cathars. When Pope Innocent III came to power in 1198, he was resolved to deal
with them.[58]

At first Innocent tried peaceful conversion, and sent a number of legates into the
Cathar regions. They had to contend not only with the Cathars, the nobles who
protected them, and the people who respected them, but also with many of the
bishops of the region, who resented the considerable authority the Pope had
conferred upon his legates. In 1204, Innocent III suspended a number of bishops in
Occitania;[59] in 1205 he appointed a new and vigorous bishop of Toulouse, the
former troubadour Foulques. In 1206 Diego of Osma and his canon, the future Saint
Dominic, began a programme of conversion in Languedoc; as part of this, Catholic-
Cathar public debates were held at Verfeil, Servian, Pamiers, Montréal and
elsewhere.

Dominic met and debated with the Cathars in 1203 during his mission to the
Languedoc. He concluded that only preachers who displayed real sanctity, humility
and asceticism could win over convinced Cathar believers. The institutional Church
as a general rule did not possess these spiritual warrants.[60] His conviction led
eventually to the establishment of the Dominican Order in 1216. The order was to
live up to the terms of his famous rebuke, "Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by
humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth."
However, even Dominic managed only a few converts among the Cathari.
Albigensian CrusadeEdit
Main article: Albigensian Crusade
Learn more
This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2014)
Pope Innocent III excommunicating the Albigensians (left), massacre of the
Albigensians by the crusaders (right)

In January 1208 the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, a Cistercian monk,

theologian and canon lawyer, was sent to meet the ruler of the area, Raymond VI,
Count of Toulouse.[61] Known for excommunicating noblemen who protected the
Cathars, Castelnau excommunicated Raymond for abetting heresy, following an
allegedly fierce argument during which Raymond supposedly threatened Castelnau with
violence.[62] Shortly thereafter, Castelnau was murdered as he returned to Rome,
allegedly by a knight in the service of Count Raymond. His body was returned and
laid to rest in the Abbey of Saint-Gilles.[citation needed]

As soon as he heard of the murder, the Pope ordered the legates to preach a crusade
against the Cathars, and wrote a letter to Philip Augustus, King of France,
appealing for his intervention—or an intervention led by his son, Louis. This was
not the first appeal, but some see the murder of the legate as a turning point in
papal policy. The chronicler of the crusade which followed, Peter of Vaux de
Cernay, portrays the sequence of events in such a way that, having failed in his
effort to peaceably demonstrate the errors of Catharism, the Pope then called a
formal crusade, appointing a series of leaders to head the assault.[citation
needed]

The French King refused to lead the crusade himself, and could not spare his son to
do so either—despite his victory against John, King of England, there were still
pressing issues with Flanders and the empire and the threat of an Angevin revival.
Philip did sanction the participation of some of his barons, notably Simon de
Montfort and Bouchard de Marly. There followed twenty years of war against the
Cathars and their allies in the Languedoc: the Albigensian Crusade.[citation
needed]

Cité de Carcassonne in 2007

This war pitted the nobles of France against those of the Languedoc. The widespread
northern enthusiasm for the Crusade was partially inspired by a papal decree
permitting the confiscation of lands owned by Cathars and their supporters. This
angered not only the lords of the south but also the French King, who was at least
nominally the suzerain of the lords whose lands were now open to seizure. Philip
Augustus wrote to Pope Innocent in strong terms to point this out—but the Pope did
not change his policy. As the Languedoc was supposedly teeming with Cathars and
Cathar sympathisers, this made the region a target for northern French noblemen
looking to acquire new fiefs. The barons of the north headed south to do battle.
[citation needed]

Their first target was the lands of the Trencavel, powerful lords of Carcassonne,
Béziers, Albi and the Razes. Little was done to form a regional coalition, and the
crusading army was able to take Carcassonne, the Trencavel capital, incarcerating
Raymond Roger Trencavel in his own citadel where he died within three months.
Champions of the Occitan cause claimed that he was murdered. Simon de Montfort was
granted the Trencavel lands by the Pope and did homage for them to the King of
France, thus incurring the enmity of Peter II of Aragon who had held aloof from the
conflict, even acting as a mediator at the time of the siege of Carcassonne. The
remainder of the first of the two Cathar wars now focused on Simon's attempt to
hold on to his gains through the winters. Then, he was faced, with only a small
force of confederates operating from the main winter camp at Fanjeaux, with the
desertion of local lords who had sworn fealty to him out of necessity—and attempts
to enlarge his newfound domains during the summer, when his forces were greatly
augmented by reinforcements from France, Germany and elsewhere.[citation needed]

Summer campaigns saw him not only retake what he had lost in the winter, but also
seeking to widen his sphere of operation—and we see him in action in the Aveyron at
St. Antonin and on the banks of the Rhône at Beaucaire. Simon's greatest triumph
was the victory against superior numbers at the Battle of Muret—a battle which saw
not only the defeat of Raymond of Toulouse and his Occitan allies—but also the
death of Peter of Aragon—and the effective end of the ambitions of the house of
Aragon/Barcelona in the Languedoc. This was in the medium and longer term of much
greater significance to the royal house of France than it was to de Montfort—and
with the Battle of Bouvines was to secure the position of Philip Augustus vis a vis
England and the Empire. The Battle of Muret was a massive step in the creation of
the unified French kingdom and the country we know today—although Edward III,
Edward the Black Prince and Henry V would threaten later to shake these
foundations.[citation needed]
MassacreEdit
Main article: Massacre at Béziers

The crusader army came under the command, both spiritually and militarily, of the
papal legate Arnaud-Amaury, Abbot of Cîteaux. In the first significant engagement
of the war, the town of Béziers was besieged on 22 July 1209. The Catholic
inhabitants of the city were granted the freedom to leave unharmed, but many
refused and opted to stay and fight alongside the Cathars.

The Cathars spent much of 1209 fending off the crusaders. The Béziers army
attempted a sortie but was quickly defeated, then pursued by the crusaders back
through the gates and into the city. Arnaud-Amaury, the Cistercian abbot-commander,
is supposed to have been asked how to tell Cathars from Catholics. His reply,
recalled by Caesarius of Heisterbach, a fellow Cistercian, thirty years later was
"Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius"—"Kill them all, the Lord will
recognise His own".[63][64] The doors of the church of St Mary Magdalene were
broken down and the refugees dragged out and slaughtered. Reportedly, at least
7,000 men, women and children were killed there by Catholic forces. Elsewhere in
the town, many more thousands were mutilated and killed. Prisoners were blinded,
dragged behind horses, and used for target practice.[65] What remained of the city
was razed by fire. Arnaud-Amaury wrote to Pope Innocent III, "Today your Holiness,
twenty thousand heretics were put to the sword, regardless of rank, age, or
sex."[66][67] "The permanent population of Béziers at that time was then probably
no more than 5,000, but local refugees seeking shelter within the city walls could
conceivably have increased the number to 20,000."[citation needed]

After the success of his siege of Carcassonne, which followed the massacre at
Béziers in 1209, Simon de Montfort was designated as leader of the Crusader army.
Prominent opponents of the Crusaders were Raymond Roger Trencavel, viscount of
Carcassonne, and his feudal overlord Peter II of Aragon, who held fiefdoms and had
a number of vassals in the region. Peter died fighting against the crusade on 12
September 1213 at the Battle of Muret. Simon de Montfort was killed on 25 June 1218
after maintaining a siege of Toulouse for nine months.[68]
Treaty and persecutionEdit
Learn more
This article may be confusing or unclear to readers. (January 2020)

The burning of the Cathar heretics

The official war ended in the Treaty of Paris (1229), by which the king of France
dispossessed the House of Toulouse of the greater part of its fiefs, and the house
of the Trencavels of the whole of their fiefs. The independence of the princes of
the Languedoc was at an end. In spite of the wholesale massacre of Cathars during
the war, Catharism was not yet extinguished, and Catholic forces would continue to
pursue Cathars.[59]

In 1215, the bishops of the Catholic church met at the Fourth Council of the
Lateran under Pope Innocent III; part of the agenda was combating the Cathar
heresy.[69]

The Inquisition was established in 1233 to uproot the remaining Cathars.[70]

Operating in the south at Toulouse, Albi, Carcassonne and other towns during the
whole of the 13th century, and a great part of the 14th, it succeeded in crushing
Catharism as a popular movement, driving its remaining adherents underground.[70]
Cathars who refused to recant or relapsed were hanged, or burnt at the stake.[71]

On Friday, 13 May 1239, in Champagne, 183 men and women convicted of Catharism were
burned at the stake on the orders of the Dominican inquisitor and former Cathar
Perfect Robert le Bougre [fr]. Mount Guimar, in northeastern France, had already
been denounced as a place of heresy in a letter of the Bishop of Liège to Pope
Lucius II in 1144. [72][73]

From May 1243 to March 1244, the Cathar fortress of Montségur was besieged by the
troops of the seneschal of Carcassonne and the archbishop of Narbonne.[74] On 16
March 1244, a large and symbolically important massacre took place, wherein over
200 Cathar Perfects were burnt in an enormous pyre at the prat dels cremats ("field
of the burned") near the foot of the castle.[74] Moreover, the Church, at the 1235
Council of Narbonne, decreed lesser chastisements against laymen suspected of
sympathy with Cathars.[75]

Inquisitors required heretical sympathisers—repentant first offenders—to sew a

yellow cross onto their clothes.[76]

A popular though as yet unsubstantiated belief holds that a small party of Cathar
Perfects escaped from the fortress prior to the massacre at prat dels cremats. It
is widely held in the Cathar region to this day that the escapees took with them le
trésor cathar. What this treasure consisted of has been a matter of considerable
speculation: claims range from sacred Gnostic texts to the Cathars' accumulated
wealth, which might have included the Holy Grail (see the Section on historical
scholarship, below).

Hunted by the Inquisition and deserted by the nobles of their districts, the
Cathars became more and more scattered fugitives, meeting surreptitiously in
forests and mountain wilds. Later insurrections broke out under the leadership of
Roger-Bernard II, Count of Foix, Aimery III of Narbonne, and Bernard Délicieux, a
Franciscan friar later prosecuted for his adherence to another heretical movement,
that of the Spiritual Franciscans at the beginning of the 14th century. By this
time, the Inquisition had grown very powerful. Consequently, many presumed to be
Cathars were summoned to appear before it. Precise indications of this are found in
the registers of the Inquisitors Bernard of Caux, Jean de St Pierre, Geoffroy
d'Ablis, and others.[59] The parfaits, it was said, only rarely recanted, and
hundreds were burnt. Repentant lay believers were punished, but their lives were
spared as long as they did not relapse. Having recanted, they were obliged to sew
yellow crosses onto their outdoor clothing and to live apart from other Catholics,
at least for a time.[citation needed]
AnnihilationEdit

After several decades of harassment and re-proselytising, and, perhaps even more
important, the systematic destruction of their religious texts, the sect was
exhausted and could find no more adepts. The leader of a Cathar revival in the
Pyrenean foothills, Peire Autier, was captured and executed in April 1310 in
Toulouse.[77][78] After 1330, the records of the Inquisition contain very few
proceedings against Cathars.[59] The last known Cathar perfectus in the Languedoc,
Guillaume Bélibaste, was executed in the autumn of 1321.[79][78]

From the mid-12th century onwards, Italian Catharism came under increasing pressure
from the Pope and the Inquisition, "spelling the beginning of the end".[80] Other
movements, such as the Waldensians and the pantheistic Brethren of the Free Spirit,
which suffered persecution in the same area, survived in remote areas and in small
numbers into the 14th and 15th centuries.[citation needed] Some Waldensian ideas
were absorbed into other proto-Protestant sects, such as the Hussites, Lollards,
and the Moravian Church . Cathars were in no way Protestant, and very few if any
Protestants consider them as their forerunners, unlike such groups as the
Waldensians, Hussites, Lollards and Arnoldists.
Later history
Interrogation of heretics
Historical and current scholarship
In art and music
See also
References
Sources
External links
Last edited 7 days ago by 2003:C0:8F34:9200:68E0:9C61:FAB6:F9F6
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 Medieval Inquisition

system of tribunals enforcing Catholic orthodoxy

Albigensian Crusade

13th-century crusade against Catharism in southern France

Cathar castles

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Bogomilism

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"Bogomil" redirects here. For the name, see Bogomil (name).

Bogomilism (Bulgarian and Macedonian: Богомилство, romanized: Bogomilstvo; Serbo-

Croatian: Bogumilstvo / Богумилство) was a Christian neo-Gnostic or dualist sect
founded in the First Bulgarian Empire by the priest Bogomil during the reign of
Tsar Peter I in the 10th century.[1][2][3] It most probably arose in what is today
the region of Macedonia.[4][5]

The Bogomils called for a return to what they considered to be early spiritual
teaching, rejecting the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and their primary political
tendencies were resistance to the state and church authorities. This helped the
movement spread quickly in the Balkans, gradually expanding throughout the
Byzantine Empire and later reaching Kievan Rus', Bosnia (Bosnian Church), Dalmatia,
Serbia, Italy, and France (Cathars).

The Bogomils were dualists or Gnostics in that they believed in a world within the
body and a world outside the body. They did not use the Christian cross, nor build
churches, as they revered their gifted form and considered their body to be the
temple. This gave rise to many forms of practice to cleanse oneself through
purging,[clarification needed] fasting, celebrating and dancing.
Etymology
Sources
HistoryEdit
PauliciansEdit
Main article: Paulicianism

One of the earliest Christian dualist sects, Marcionism, originated in Armenia (in
the eastern part of present Turkey).[11] The church Marcion himself established,
appeared to die out around the 5th century, although similarities between
Marcionism and Paulicianism, a sect in the same geographical area, indicate that
Marcionist elements may have survived.[12] Paulicianism began in the mid-7th
century, when Constantine of Mananalis, basing his message solely on the New
Testament, began to teach that there were two gods: a good god who had made men's
souls, and an evil god who had created the entire physical universe including the
human body. His followers, who became known as Paulicians, were not marked by
extreme deviance in lifestyle compared to contemporaries, despite their belief that
the world was evil, and were renowned as good fighting men.[13]

However, it is not certain that the Paulicians were Dualistic, as in the Key of
Truth it is said that: "The Paulicians are not dualists in any other sense than the
New Testament is itself dualistic. Satan is simply the adversary of man and God".
[14]

In 970 the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes transplanted 200,000 Armenian

Paulicians to Europe and settled them in the neighbourhood of Philippopolis
(today's Plovdiv in Thrace). Under Byzantine and then later Ottoman rule, the
Armenian Paulicians lived in relative safety in their ancient stronghold near
Philippopolis, and further northward. Linguistically, they were assimilated into
the Bulgarians, by whom they were called pavlikiani (the Byzantine Greek word for
Paulician). In 1650, the Roman Catholic Church gathered them into its fold.
Fourteen villages near Nicopolis, in Moesia, embraced Catholicism, as well as the
villages around Philippopolis. A colony of Paulicians in the Wallachian village of
Cioplea [ro] near Bucharest also followed the example of their brethren across the
Danube.[7]
OriginsEdit
The religious distribution at the time of the East–West Schism,[15] showing
Bogomils concentrated in the Balkans.

The Gnostic social-religious movement and doctrine originated in the time of Peter
I of Bulgaria (927–969), alleged in the modern day to be a reaction against state
and clerical oppression of the Byzantine church. In spite of all measures of
repression, it remained strong and popular until the fall of the Second Bulgarian
Empire in the end of the 14th century. Bogomilism was an outcome of many factors
that had arisen in the beginning of the 10th century, most probably in the region
of Macedonia. It was also strongly influenced by the Paulicians who had been driven
out of Armenia.[16]
Spread of Bogomilism in the BalkansEdit

Council against Bogomilism, organized by Stefan Nemanja. Fresco from 1290

Slav peasantry in parts of Bulgaria very likely was the first in closer contact
with Bogomilism and young Bulgarian church was aware of the danger. Pope Nicholas I
warns Boris I of the danger of false teachings but he was not specific about heresy
as such. Bogomilism was a native Slavic sect from the middle of the 10th century
began to flourish while the Theophylact of Constantinople warned Peter I against
this new heresy.[17] The Bogomils spread westwards and settled in Serbia, where
they were to be known as Babuns (Babuni). At the end of the 12th century Serbian
Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja and the Serbian council deemed Bogomilism a heresy, and
expelled them from the country. Large numbers, majority of Vlach origin, took
refuge in Bosnia and Dalmatia where they were known under the name of Patarenes
(Patareni).[7]

In the time of Samuel, Bogomilism spread into Serbia and Bosnia. The most active
area become west Bosnia, centred on the valley of the River Bosna. In the province
of Hum (modern Herzegovina) the Bogomils were also strong, in cities of Split and
Trogir Bogomils were numerous but later they took refuge in Bosnia.[18] Providing
refuge to those labeled heretics, including Bogomils, was a recurrent pretext for
Hungarian rulers to declare crusades against Bosnia and extend their influence in
the region. A first Hungarian complaint to the Pope was averted by the public
abjuration of the Bosnian ruler Ban Kulin, close relative of Stefan Nemanja, in
1203.[19] A second Hungarian crusade against Bosnia on Bogomil heresy pretext was
launched in 1225, but failed. In 1254, rebelling against the Papal order to accept
a Hungarian bishop, the Bosnian Church chose the schism. In the following
centuries, the Bosnian Church and the heretic sect of the Bogomils came to be
identified with each other, due to the scarcity of documents after the Ottoman
conquest.[20]

In 1203, Pope Innocent III, with the aid of the King of Hungary, forced an
agreement of Kulin to acknowledge Papal authority and religion: in practice this
was ignored. On the death of Kulin in 1216 a mission was sent to convert Bosnia to
Rome but failed. In 1234, the Catholic Bishop of Bosnia was removed by Pope Gregory
IX for allowing heretical practices.[21] In addition, Gregory called on the
Hungarian king to crusade against the heretics.[22] However, Bosnian nobles were
able to expel the Hungarians.[23]

In 1252, Pope Innocent IV decided to put Bosnia's bishop under the Hungarian
Kalocsa jurisdiction. Such decision provoked the schism of the Bosnian Christians,
who refused to submit to the Hungarians and broke off their relations with Rome.
[24] In that way, an autonomous Bosnian Church came into being, in which some later
saw a Bogomil or Cathar Church, while in reality no trace of Bogomilism, Catharism
or dualism can be found in the original documents of the Bosnian Christians.[25]

It was not until Pope Nicholas' Bull "Prae cunctis" in 1291 that the Dominican-led
inquisition was imposed on Bosnia.[26] The Inquisition reported of the existence of
a dualist sect in Bosnia in the late 15th century and called them "Bosnian
heretics", but this sect was most likely not the same as the Bosnian Church.

Bogomilism was eradicated in Bulgaria, Rascia (a Serbian medieval state) and

Byzantium in the 13th century, but some smaller elements survived in Rascia's
principality of Hum (present day Herzegovina) and Bosnia by embracing eastern
tradition of the Bosnian church[27] until the Ottoman Empire gained control of the
region in 1463. Some scholars, who sought certain ideological backgrounds and
justifications for their political narratives, argue that both Catholics and
Orthodox persecuted the Bogomils as heretics and according to them, the pressures
drew Bosnia to Bogomilism. It has purportedly been said that, with the introduction
of Ottoman rule, Bosnians were often more likely to convert to Islam since some of
them were not adherents of either the Roman Catholic or Serb Orthodox churches.
[citation needed] However, these claims have been rejected by some as an
anachronism from the Austro-Hungarian era.[28][29]

From Bosnia, their influence extended into Italy (Piedmont). The Hungarians
undertook many crusades against the heretics in Bosnia, but towards the close of
the 15th century, the conquest of that country by the Turks put an end to their
persecution. Few or no remnants of Bogomilism have survived in Bosnia. The Ritual
in Slavonic written by the Bosnian Radoslav, and published in vol. xv. of the
Starine of the South Slavonic Academy at Agram, shows great resemblance to the
Cathar ritual published by Cunitz, 1853.[30][31]

There are still over ten thousand Banat Bulgarians in Banat today in the villages
of Dudeştii Vechi, Vinga, Breştea and also in the city of Timișoara, with a few in
Arad; however, they no longer practice Bogomilism, having converted to Roman
Catholicism. There are also a few villages of Paulicians in the Serbian part of
Banat, especially the villages of Ivanovo and Belo Blato, near Pančevo.
Social factorsEdit

The gradual Christianization of the Bulgarian population, the fact that the service
was initially practiced in Greek, which only the elite knew, resulted in a low
level of understanding of the religion among the peasantry. Due to the constant
wars during the time of Tsar Simeon I, the lands near the Byzantine border (Thrace)
were devastated, and the people living there were left without occupation. The
constant change of authority over these lands, and the higher taxes during the time
of Tsar Peter I, gave birth to a great social discontent at the beginning of the
10th century. Moreover, the corruption of the church as an institution led to grave
disappointment among its recently converted flock.[citation needed]
Religious factorsEdit

The existence of older Christian heresies in the Bulgarian lands (Manichaeism and
Paulicianism), which were considered very dualistic, influenced the Bogomil
movement. Manichaeism's origin is related to Zoroastrianism; that is why Bogomilism
is sometimes indirectly connected to Zoroastrianism in the sense of its duality.
Connections to the royal courtEdit

Most probably, as Samuil of Bulgaria revolted against the Byzantine Empire, he

relied on the popular support of the movement. There are no sources of Bogomil
persecution during his reign (976–1014).[8]
DoctrineEdit

оучѧтъ же своꙗ си не повиновати сѧ властелемъ своимъ; хоулѧще богатꙑѩ, царь

ненавидѧтъ, рѫгаѭтъ сѧ старѣишинамъ, оукарꙗѭтъ болꙗрꙑ, мрьзькꙑ богоу мьнѧтъ
работаѭщѧѩ цѣсарю, и вьсꙗкомоу рабоу не велѧтъ работати господиноу своѥмоу.

They teach their followers not to obey their masters; they scorn the rich, they
hate the Tsars, they ridicule their superiors, they reproach the boyars, they
believe that God looks in horror on those who labour for the Tsar, and advise every
serf not to work for his master.[32]
— Cosmas the Priest, Treatise Against the Bogomils

From the imperfect and conflicting data that is available, one positive result can
be gathered that the Bogomils were gnostics, adoptionists and dualists.[7]

Their dualism was initially moderate (or "monarchian"): according to their

teachings, God created and rules the spiritual part of the world, and Satan the
material, but Satan is ultimately inferior to God and his side by virtue of being
God's son.[33] However, Bogomils were not quite free from the absolute dualism of
Manichaeism and Paulicianism, and over time adopted an absolute position too,
believing God and Satan as eternal opponents, similar to the one maintained by the
posterior Cathars.[33]

Their adoptionist teaching apparently came from Paul of Samosata (though at a later
period the name of Paul was believed to be that of the Apostle). They rejected the
Christianity of the Orthodox churches, though did not accept the docetic teaching
of some of the other gnostic sects.[7] They also opposed established forms of
government and church as alike to anarchism (see Christian anarchism).

In the Bogomil and Cathar text "The Secret Supper" Jesus calls God his father and
it says that Mary received Jesus through the Holy Spirit.[34]

Bogomils have been accused of believing that John the Baptist comes from satan in
the book of Boril.[35]

Supporters of the Baptist successionism theory argue that alligations of Bogomil

doctrines are largely false, due to most sources being hostile.[36]
Source textsEdit

Possible source texts for Bogomil doctrine include:

The Bulgarian priest Jeremiah's "The Story of the Cross-tree" and "The Prayer
against Fever"[37]
Book of the Secret Supper,[38] which was wrongly described by inquisitors as
similar to the Apocryphon of John[38]
Vision of Isaiah (according to Euthymius Zigabenus)[39][40]
Bogomils accepted the four Gospels, fourteen Epistles of Paul, the three Epistles
of John, James, Jude, and an Epistle to the Laodiceans, which they professed to
have. They sowed the seeds of a rich, popular religious literature in the East as
well as the West. The Historiated Bible, the Letter from Heaven, the Wanderings
through Heaven and Hell, the numerous Adam and Cross legends, the religious poems
of the "Kalēki perehozhie" and other similar productions owe their dissemination to
a large extent to the activity of the Bogomils of Bulgaria, and their successors in
other lands.[7]
CosmologyEdit

In their original monarchian dualist story, Bogomils taught that God had two sons,
the elder Satanail and the younger Michael.[7] Satanail rebelled against the father
and became an evil spirit. He created the lower heavens and the Earth and tried in
vain to create man, though in the end he had to appeal to God for the Spirit. After
creation, Adam was allowed to till the ground on condition that he sold himself and
his posterity to the owner of the Earth, Satanail.

In order to free Adam and his offspring, Michael was sent in the form of a man,
becoming identified with Jesus Christ, and was "elected" by God after the baptism
in the Jordan. When the Holy Ghost appeared in the shape of the dove, Jesus
received power to break the covenant in the form of a clay tablet (hierographon)
held by Satanail from Adam. He had now become the angel Michael in a human form,
and as such he vanquished Satanail, and deprived him of the suffix il (meaning
God), in which his power resided. Satanail was thus transformed into Satan.
However, through Satan's machinations the crucifixion took place, and Satan was the
originator of the whole Orthodox community with its churches, vestments,
ceremonies, sacraments and fasts, with its monks and priests. This world being the
work of Satan, the perfect must eschew any and every excess of its pleasure, though
not so far as asceticism.[7]

They held the "Lord's Prayer" in high respect as the most potent weapon against
Satan, and had a number of conjurations against "evil spirits". Each community had
its own twelve "apostles", and women could be raised to the rank of "elect". The
Bogomils wore garments like those of mendicant friars and were known as
enthusiastic missionaries, travelling far and wide to propagate their doctrines.
Healing the sick and exorcising the evil spirit, they traversed different countries
and spread their apocryphal literature along with some of the books of the Old
Testament, deeply influencing the religious spirit of the nations and preparing
them for the Reformation.[7]
Christology and the TrinityEdit

For Bogomils "the Logos was not the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the
Eternal Word incarnate, but merely the spoken word of God, shown in the oral
teaching of Christ".[41] Although Bogomils regarded themselves as "Trinitarian",
[42] anathemas against Bogomils (circa 1027) charge Bogomils with rejection of the
Trinity.[43] In the Bogomil and Cathar text "The Secret Supper" the book starts
with: "In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen."[44]
Opposition to institutions and materialismEdit

The Catholic Church considered Bogomilism a heresy due to the duality in the
Bogomil cosmogony, wherein the earthly sinful corporeal life is a creation of
Satan, an angel that was sent to Earth.[45]

Karp Strigolnik, who in the 14th century preached the doctrine in Novgorod,
explained that St. Paul had taught that simpleminded men should instruct one
another; therefore they elected their "teachers" from among themselves to be their
spiritual guides, and had no special priests. There is a tradition that the
Bogomils taught that prayers were to be said in private houses, not in separate
buildings such as churches. Ordination was conferred by the congregation and not by
any specially appointed minister. The congregation were the "elect", and each
member could obtain the perfection of Christ and become a Christ or "Chlist".
Marriage was not a sacrament. Bogomils refused to fast on Mondays and Fridays, and
they rejected monasticism. They declared Christ to be the Son of God only through
grace like other prophets, and that the bread and wine of the eucharist were not
physically transformed into flesh and blood; that the last judgement would be
executed by God and not by Jesus; that the images and the cross were idols and the
veneration of saints and relics idolatry.[7]

These doctrines have survived in the great Russian sects, and can be traced back to
the teachings and practice of the Bogomils. But in addition to these doctrines of
an adoptionist origin, they held the Manichaean dualistic conception of the origin
of the world. This has been partly preserved in some of their literary remains, and
has taken deep root in the beliefs and traditions of Balkan nations with
substantial Bogomil followings. The chief literature of all the heretical sects
throughout the ages has been that of apocryphal Biblical narratives, and the popes
Jeremiah or Bogumil are directly mentioned as authors of such forbidden books
"which no orthodox dare read". Though these writings are mostly of the same origin
as those from the older lists of apocryphal books, they underwent a modification at
the hands of their Bogomil editors, so as to be useful for the propagation of their
own specific doctrines.[7]

In its most simple and attractive form—invested with the authority of the reputed
holy author—their account of the creation of the world and of man, the origin of
sin and redemption, the history of the Cross, and the disputes between body and
soul, right and wrong, heaven and hell, were embodied either in "Historiated
Bibles" (Paleya) or in special dialogues held between Christ and his disciples, or
between renowned Fathers of the Church who expounded these views in a simple manner
adapted to the understanding of the people (Lucidaria).[7]
Legacy
See also
References
Sources
Further reading
External links
Last edited 4 days ago by WereSpielChequers
Related articles

Bosnian Church

Christian church in medieval Bosnia

Paulicianism

Treatise Against the Bogomils

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