Cathars

Full Name: Cathars

Nickname/Alias: Albigensians; Bogomils

Began: 10^th century; Thrace, Greece

Ended: 14^th century; Italy

Field & Discipline: Religion; Mysticism

Language: Latin

Details:

The Cathars or Cathari, derived from the Greek work: ‘katharos’ meaning pure, was the name given by the Catholic Church to a number of heretical groups with certain religious ideas in common.

From the eastern Mediterranean area, new religious views spread during the first half of the twelfth century,  as knights returned from the second crusade to the Holy Land., There were distinct signs of this new belief system,  known as Bogomilism, in northern France and the Rhine countries by 1160’s.  By 1165 the views had spread to southern France and Italy.

Bogomilism provided the different groups of Cathars with a doctrinal framework, although it could never be said that there was a unified system of beliefs among the Cathars.  Bogomolism started in Thrace and penetrated as far as Bulgaria, where the priest Bogomil, during the reign of Czar Peter 927-969, was fired by them to found his sect. Changing the precepts of his faith,  he rejected the Sacraments, the Mass, the Old Testament,  and all prayers but for the Lord’s Prayer. He also taught contempt for the official church (the Greek church).

A new set of colourful myths about the Creation and the Fall were created by the Bogomils, to replace the stories of the Old Testament. They believed that matter had been created by the Good God, but that the world and the human body had been created by Satan. People had been made either by trapping the soul of an angel in a body to make Adam, or by persuading the Good God to animate clay. After this, new souls were created when children were born.

Over the next two centuries these ideas spread wide. By the early eleventh century the doctrines had reached the Balkans and Constantinople where they were much debated. By the twelfth century they were in Western Europe.

In Italy there were no Cathar bishops before 1170, when at first all Cathars came under Bishop Mark.  In 1174, Nicetas, a Cathar bishop of Constantinople, came to Italy and through the influence of his absolute dualism led to the sect splitting into two groups; the absolute Dualists or Albigenses, and the moderate dualists or Garatenses.  (‘Absolute dualism’ believed that the forces of good and evil in the universe are equal and opposite, whereas ‘moderate dualism’ believed that good ultimately triumphs over evil).

In Northern France Catharism was limited to the area around Charité-sur-Loire, but in the south and in Italian Lombardy they had a strong foothold.  In the southern part of France the Cathars followed the doctrine of absolute dualism and were known as Albigenses (from the city of Albi), although their centre was not at this city, but Toulouse. Here they were protected by [protected by] William IX of Aquitaine.*   His lead was soon followed by other members of the nobility, although Catharism found acceptance across various social levels, including the lesser nobility, artisans and peasants, and the burghers of the cities who profited by the permissive Cathar attitude to money-lending

The beliefs of the Cathars, like those of the Bogomils, rejected what appear to be fundamental aspects of the Christian faith, but which actually emanated from ideas that had existed in the early centuries of Christianity. The Cathars of Western Europe rejected the sacraments, the doctrines of hell, purgatory and the resurrection of the body. They condemned marriage and baptism by water, and baptism of children. Foods derived from flesh,  i.e. all forms of milk, eggs and meat, were also banned.

While without prescribed religious beliefs and practices, Catharism possessed one general principle: a belief in the intrinsic evil of the visible or physical world which came from the belief that the visible world, and all physical matter, had been created by the devil.

The belief of the Cathars was dualist, however, so they also believed in a force of good.  For them the universe was a battleground for the equal and opposing forces of good and evil, generated by the good god, creator of the invisible and incorruptible, and the bad god, creator of the visible and transitory.  With existence being defined by the two active principles of good and evil, carnal existence (the earthly condition) was necessarily a ‘mixed’ state, brought about by the devil, who trapped souls in a physical existence. The purpose of redemption through religious faith was to liberate the soul from the body,  ending the ‘mixed’ state brought about by the devil. It was possible for a soul to pass through more than one existence.

When the Church finally took action against the Cathars, it was by preaching and persecution.  Innocent III tried peaceful conversion, but in 1209 ordered the Cistercians to preach a crusade against the Albigenses.  The Albigensian Crusade brought the northern nobility of France into open conflict with the southern nobility, and had devastating effects on the flourishing thirteenth-century Provencal culture. Around 1233 a Papal Inquisition was ordered,  with full-time Dominican and Franciscan inquisitors. (The Dominican Order had been founded by [ prosecuted by followers of] St Dominic,* in part, as a counteraction against the spread of heresy).     

The inquisitors had the right to convene special courts, where the accused were not informed of what the nature of their crime. The accused could not call witnesses in their defence.  The inquisitors had the right to impose imprisonment or death by burning at the stake, although in fact these punishments were relatively sparingly administered. On average, during the years of this inquisition, three people a year were burned in the south of France. The usual punishment involved the performance of penance.

By 1250 the church of the Cathars had been destroyed in France,  and the bishops fled to Italy,  where Catharism had died out by the end of the fourteenth century.

Extra Connections:  There may have been a link between Cathars and the courtly love poetry fostered by [possible link with] Eleanor of Aquitaine*

Assessment:  The major effect of Catharism was the establishment of the Inquisition.

Oneliner: Cathars, medieval mystic sect

Bibliography:

• Lambert, Malcolm.  The Cathars.  Blackwell, Oxford, 1998.