"The Cathars were heretics without a name. The word Cathar is a
slang name, used by Catholics as an insult. The words Perfect, the
elect, and Credentes for the followers are similarly lifted from
the annals of the Inquisition. They called themselves Good men,
Good Women or simply Good Christians. They were,
undeniably, dualists who believed that there were two Gods – the good
God of the spiritual world and the Bad God of the material world.
Accordingly the material world was of no interest. They believed that you
had to reach a spiritual enlightenment in order to finally reach the Good
God. The Catholic Church with its sacraments, relics, rules and
prohibitions was seen as, at best, an irrelevancy to the Cathars.
Catholics had simply missed the point.
The Catholic Church in Languedoc was a sad mess at this time, the
late 12th Century. Corrupt and worldly Archbishops and Bishops led a trail
of usury, ignorance and malpractice right down to the average village
priest, who probably had a few concubines and was woefully ignorant of the
substance of Christianity. In comparison the wandering Perfect were
ascetic, saintly men who ate no meat, were celibate, learned and lived as
simple, wandering artisans. They had little difficulty winning adherents.
But while dualism was rife throughout southern Europe there were special
reasons for its success in the Occitan; as mentioned, the Church was
feeble, but the feudal system had not thrown up the central organisation
it had in Northern France and England. The ancient custom of dividing land
equally between all children, men and women, had seen to that. Cathar
Perfect could be women as well as men, and many of the leading lights of
Catharism were noble women of limited, but independent means. The Occitan
was a fragmented, independent state, not easily controlled or regulated.
And so the Dualist faith thrived. In many mountain villages Dualists
were in the majority while in towns like Carcassonne or the region’s
capital, Toulouse, Cathars and orthodox Christians (and indeed, Jews,
remarkably enough) rubbed shoulders happily, each content to worship their
own."
This quotation is taken from a website authored by Brian Creese.
You can get your copy of my ebook "Capcir Spring"by clicking HERE if you are in the USA or here if you are in the UK Thank you
You can get your copy of my ebook "Capcir Spring"by clicking HERE if you are in the USA or here if you are in the UK Thank you
