Cathar: Encyclopedia - Cathar

Cathar

Catharism was a religious movement with Gnostic elements that originated around the middle of the 10^th century, branded by the contemporary Roman Catholic Church as heretical. It existed throughout much of Western Europe, but its home was in Languedoc and surrounding areas in southern France.

The name Cathar most likely originated from Greek καθαροί, "pure ones". One of the first recorded uses is Eckbert von Schönau, who wrote on heretics from Cologne in 1181: "Hos nostra germania catharos appellat."

The Cathars were also sometimes labelled Albigensians. This name originates from the end of the 12^th century, and was used by the chronicler Geoffroy du Breuil of Vigeois in 1181. The name refers to the southern town of Albi (the ancient Albiga). The designation is hardly exact, for the centre was at Toulouse and in the neighbouring districts.

Cathar - Origins

The beliefs came originally from Eastern Europe by way of trade routes. The name of Bulgarians (Bougres) was also applied to the Albigenses, and they maintained an association with the Bogomils of Thrace. Their doctrines have numerous resemblances to those of the Bogomils (and Paulicians). It is difficult to form any precise idea of the Cathar doctrines, as all the existing knowledge of them is derived from their opponents, and the few texts from the Cathars (the Rituel Cathare de Lyon and the Nouveau Testament en Provencal) contain very little information concerning their beliefs and moral practices. What is certain is that they formed an anti-sacerdotal party in opposition to the Catholic Church, and raised a continued protest against perceived corruption of the clergy. The Cathar theologians, called Cathari or perfecti by their Catholic executioners and judges, were known to themselves, their followers and even their co-citizens as "bons hommes" or "bons chrétiens", literally "good men" or "good christians", were few in number; the mass of believers (credentes) were not initiated into the doctrine at all—they were allegedly freed from all moral prohibition and all religious obligation, on condition that they promised by an act called convenenza to become "hereticized" by receiving the consolamentum, the baptism of the Spirit, before their death.

The first French Cathars appeared in Limousin between 1012 and 1020. Several were discovered and put to death at Toulouse in 1022. The synods of Charroux (Vienne) (1028) and Toulouse (1056) condemned the growing sect. Preachers were summoned to the districts of the Agenais and the Toulousain to combat the Cathar doctrine in the 1100s. The Cathars, however, gained ground in the south thanks to the protection given by William, Duke of Aquitaine, and a significant proportion of the southern nobility. The people were impressed by the bons hommes, and the anti-sacerdotal preaching of Peter of Bruys and Henry of Lausanne in Périgord.

Cathar - Beliefs

Cathar - The human condition

The Cathars proclaimed there existed within humankind a spark of divine light. This light, or spirit, had fallen into captivity within a realm of corruption - identified with the material world. This was a distinct feature of classical Gnosticism, of Manichaeism and of the theology of the Bogomils. This concept of the human condition within Catharism most probably was due to direct and indirect historical influences from these older (and sometimes also violently suppressed) Gnostic movements. According to the Cathars, the world had been created by a lesser deity, much like the figure known in classical Gnostic myth as the Demiurge. This creative force was not the "True God", though he made pretense of being the "one and only God" before whom was no other. The Cathars identified this lesser deity, the Demiurge, with the being known by the name of Satan. (It should be noted that most forms of classical Gnosticism had not made this explicit link between the Demiurge and Satan). Essentially, the Cathars proclaimed that the God worshipped by orthodox Christianity was an imposter, and his church was a corrupt abomination deeply infused by the failings of the material realm. Spirit - the vital essence of humanity - was thus trapped in a flawed physical realm created by a usurper and ruled by his corrupt minions.

Cathar - Eschatology

The goal of Cathar eschatology was liberation from the realm of limitation and corruption identified with material existence. The path to liberation first required an awakening to the intrinsic corruption of the medieval "consensus reality", including its ecclesiastical, dogmatic, and social structures. Once cognizant of the grim existential reality of human existence (the "prison" of matter), the path to spiritual liberation became obvious: matter's enslaving bonds must be broken. This was a step by step process, accomplished in different measures by each individual. The Cathars apparently recognized the potential of reincarnation. Those who were unable to achieve liberation during their current mortal journey would return later to continue the struggle. Thus it should be understood that reincarnation was neither a necessary nor a desirable event, but resultant of the fact that not all humans could break the enthralling chains of matter within a single lifetime.

Cathar - Consolamentum

Cathar society was divided into two general categories, the Perfecti (Perfects, Parfaits) and the Credentes (Believers). The Perfecti were the core of the movement, though the actual number of Perfecti in Cathar society was always relatively small, numbering at most a few thousand during any given period. Regardless of their number, they represented the perpetuating heart of the Cathar tradition, the "true Christian Church". (When discussing the tenets of Cathar faith it must be understood that absolute demands of exteme asceticism fell only upon the Perfecti.)

An individual entered into the community of Perfecti through a ritual known as the consolamentum, a rite that was both sacramental and sacerdotal in nature: sacramental in that it granted redemption and liberation from this world; sacerdotal in that those who had received this rite functioned as the Cathar clergy. Upon reception of the consolamentum, the new Perfectus surrendered his or her worldly goods to the community, vested himself in a simple black robe with cord belt, and undertook a life dedicated to following the example of Christ and His Apostles -- an often peripatetic life of purity, prayer, preaching, charitable work, and total dependence upon alms for material sustanence. Above all, the Perfecti were dedicated to helping others find the road that led from a dark land ruled by a dark lord, to the realm of light that they believed to be humankind's first source and ultimate end.

The perceived goodness of the men and women who were Perfecti was widely witnessed in their own time and land, and they were dubbed in common parlance as the bon hommes. The exemplary behavior of the Perfecti -- so blatantly in contrast on to the corruption of the normative medieval church -- was one the factors that made Catharism difficult to suppress within its homeland. (The Cathar example has been seen as one of the forces subsequently influencing the young Francis of Assisi and the movement he founded.)

While the Perfecti lived lives of simplicity, frugality and purity, Cathar credentes (believers) were not expected to adopt the same stringent lifestyle. Catharism was above all a popular religion and the numbers of those who considered themselves "believers" in the late twelfth century included a sizable portion of the population of Languedoc, counting among them many noble families and courts. These individuals married, ate meat, and led relatively normative lives within the matrix of medieval society -- in contrast to the Perfecti, who they honored as their exemplars. Though unable to immediately embrace a life of complete purity, the credentes looked toward an eventual time when this would be their calling and path.

Many credentes would also eventually received the consolumentum as death drew near -- embracing the ritual of liberation at a moment when the heavy obligations of purity required of a 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 in order to give the death process a quicker termination. This has been termed the endura. It was claimed by Cathar opponents that by such action of self-imposed starvation, the Cathari committed suicide to escape this world. Other than at the moment of extremis, however, little evidence exists to support such a Cathar practice more generally.

Cathar - Theology

The Catharist concept of Jesus might be called docetistic (see docetism) -- theologically speaking, it resembled modalistic monarchianism in the West and adoptionism in the East. Simply put, most Cathars believed that Jesus had been a pure manifestation of spirit unbounded by the limitations of matter. They embraced the Gospel of John as their most sacred text, and completely rejected the Old Testament -- indeed, they proclaimed that the god of the Old Testament was by all textual evidence really the devil. They proclaimed that there was a higher God -- the True God -- and Jesus was his messenger. The deity found in the Old Testament had nothing to do with the God of Love known to Cathar faith. He had created the world as prison, and then demanded from the inmates fearful obedience and worship. This false god was in reality -- so proclaimed the Cathari -- a blind usurper who under the most unjust pretexts tormented and murdered those whom he called all too possessively "his children". (This exegesis upon the Old Testament is not unique to the Cathars, and clearly echoes views found in earlier Gnostic movements and certainly foreshadows later critical voices.) The dogma of the Trinity and the sacrament of the Eucharist were also rejected. Belief in metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls, resulted in logical rejection of purgatory; for the Cathars, the current world was purgatory enough.

Cathar - Social relationships

From the theological underpinnings of the Cathar faith there came practical injunctions that were potentially destabilizing to the order of medieval society. For instance, Cathars rejected the giving of oaths as wrongful; an oath served to place one under the domination this world. To reject oaths in this manner was seen as very dangerous in a society where illiteracy was wide-spread and almost all business transactions and pledges of allegiance were based on the giving of oaths.

In Cathar society and religion women were granted an uncommon equality and autonomy, including acceptance as Perfecti, the clerical order of Cathari. Cathars did not perform any rite of marriage, which was seen as a contract of social bondage. Nor was procreation encouraged: bringing more souls into what they considered a dark and sorrowful world was not a blessed act.

Sexual intercourse and reproduction propagated the slavery of spirit to flesh, and sexual abstinence was considered desirable even in matrimony. Informal relationships (what might be termed concubinage) may have been considered preferable to the social contract of marriage among Cathar credentes. Perfecti were expected to observe complete celebacy. Abandonment of a wife or husband (and abrogation of a social contract, though not necessarily a relationship of love) might be necessary for those who would become Perfecti.

The slaying of life was abhorrent to the Cathars, just as was the senseless copulation that produced enslavement in matter. Consequently, abstention from all animal food except fish was enjoined of the Perfecti. (The Perfecti apparently avoided eating anything considered to be a by-product of sexual reproduction, including cheese, eggs, milk and butter.) War and capital punishment were also absolutely condemned, an abnormality in the medieval age, and a fact that prohibited the Cathar Perfecti from bearing arms even in their own defense.

Such teachings, both theological and practical, brought upon the Cathars firm condemnation from the medieval civil and religious authorities whose social order they threatened.

Cathar - Suppression

In 1147, Pope Eugene III sent a legate to the affected 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, and clearly shows the power of the sect in the south of France at that period. The missions of Cardinal Peter (of St. Chrysogonus) to Toulouse and the Toulousain in 1178, and of Henry, cardinal-bishop of Albano, in 1180–1181, obtained merely momentary successes. Henry of Albano's armed expedition, where he took the stronghold at Lavaur, did not extinguish the movement.

The persistent decisions of the councils against the Cathars at this period — in particular, those of the Council of Tours (1163) and of the Third Council of the Lateran (1179) — had scarcely more effect. By the time Pope Innocent III came to power in 1198, he had resolved to suppress the Cathari.

St Dominic encountered them while travelling, and tried to combat the strange doctrines. He had concluded that only the best of preachers could win over people who had fallen in with the Cathari sect. This lead to the establishment on 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."

At first Pope Innocent III tried pacific conversion, and sent a number of legates into the affected regions. They had to contend not only with the Cathars, the nobles who protected them, and the people who venerated them, but also with the bishops of the district, who rejected the extraordinary authority which the Pope had conferred upon his legates. In 1204, Innocent III suspended the authority of the bishops in the south of France. Papal legate Peter of Castelnau, known for excommunicating the noblemen who protected the Cathars, excommunicated the Count of Toulouse as an abettor of heresy in 1207. Peter was then murdered near Saint Gilles Abbey in 1208 on his way back to Rome, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "probably at the connivance of Raymond VI, count of Toulouse". As soon as he heard of the murder, the Pope ordered his legates to preach the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars.

This war threw the whole of the nobility of the north of France against that of the south, possibly instigated by a papal decree stating that all land owned by Cathars could be confiscated at will. As the area was full of Cathar sympathisers, this made the entire area a target for northern nobles looking to gain new lands. It is thus hardly surprising that the barons of the north flocked south to do battle for the Church.

In one famous incident in 1209, most of Béziers were slaughtered by the Catholic forces headed by the Papal legate. Arnaud-Amaury, the Abbot of Citeaux, was asked how to distinguish between the Catholic and Cathars, and allegedly answered, "Kill them all, God will know his own". The Catholic Encyclopedia denies these words were ever spoken.

The war also involved Peter II, the king of Aragon, who owned fiefdoms and had vassals in the area. Peter died fighting against the crusade on September 12, 1213 at the Battle of Muret.

The 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 that of Béziers of the whole of its fiefs. The independence of the princes of the south was at an end. But in spite of the wholesale massacre of Cathars during the war, Catharism was not extinguished.

In 1215, the bishops of the Catholic Church met at the Fourth Council of the Lateran under Pope Innocent. One of the key goals of the council was to combat heresy.

The Inquisition was established in 1229 to root out the Cathars. Operating in the south at Toulouse, Albi, Carcassonne and other towns during the whole of the 13^th century, and a great part of the 14^th century, it succeeded in extirpating the movement. From May 1243 to March 1244, the Cathar citadel of Montségur was besieged by the troops of the seneschal of Carcassonne and the archbishop of Narbonne. On March 16, 1244 a large and symbolically important execution took place, where leaders of Catharism together with more than 200 Cathar laity were thrown into an enormous fire at the prat des cramats near the foot of the castle. Moreover, the church decreed severe chastisement against all laymen suspected of sympathy with Cathars (Council of Narbonne, 1235; Bull Ad extirpanda, 1252).

Hunted down by the Inquisition and abandoned by the nobles of the district, the Albigenses became more and more scattered, hiding in the forests and mountains, and only meeting surreptitiously. The people made some attempts to overthrow the Inquisition and the French, and insurrections broke out under the leadership of Bernard of Foix, Aimerv of Narbonne and Bernard Délicieux at the beginning of the 14^th century. But at this point vast inquests were set on foot by the Inquisition, which increased its efforts in the district. Precise indications of these are found in the registers of the Inquisitors, Bernard of Caux, Jean de St Pierre, Geoffroy d'Ablis, and others. The sect was exhausted and could find no more adepts, and after 1330 the records of the Inquisition contain few proceedings against Cathars. The last Cathar Perfect, Guillaume Bélibaste, was executed in 1321. Other movements, such as the Waldensians and the pantheistic Brethren of the Free Spirit survived into the 14^th and 15^th century, until they were gradually replaced by, or absorbed into, early Protestant sects, such as the Hussites.

Cathar - Influences

• Christian Rosencreuz, according to some, may have been associated with an underground Cathar movement that hid from the Inquisition. However, this is highly unlikely because there is absolutely no evidence that the Cathar movement still existed by Rosencreuz' time, nor is there any concrete evidence that Rosencreuz existed at all.

Cathar - The Holy Grail

• It has been suggested in some modern fiction and non-fiction books that the Cathars could have been the protectors of the Holy Grail of Christian mythology, especially in the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, although modern investigation into this book has largely discredited its findings.

Cathar - Visigoths

Visigoths had settled in the region described as central to Catharism, which separated the political ideology from the Frankish northern provinces or Burgundy. The Crusade to rid Christendom of Cathars was a synonym for eradicating the last remnants of Arianism. The disparity between religious practices had not only been between the Visigoths of Toulouse and Franks of Paris, because Burgundy's Geneva would later erupt in Calvinism with opposition by the Franks at that time as well.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Cathar", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki