Cathars

Cathars existed in France, especially Orleans, Provence and Languedoc areas and in Northern Italy and honoured the Gospel of St John. Raymond VI of Toulouse was especially lenient towards religious people and there was a medical school at Narbonne where Jews taught and practiced. These liberal values allowed women to own property in their own right. Cathars were ascetics, often holding high positions, such as artisans and tradespeople, within the community, especially the priesthood (the Parfaits). They were vegetarian - though ate fish, and were non violent. They regularly fasted and believed in sexual chastity, they also believed in reincarnation, and were dualists where the world was based on good and evil. They believed that the god of the Old Testament, Jehovah, created the world, but he was an evil god and the world was an evil place. Women were liberated and able to become priests. Many great philosophers of the distant past, followers of Mithras (who practiced in secret in the Languedoc caves) and the Persian Zoroasterians had many similar dualistic beliefs to Cathars. Manes (Manichaeism) persecuted in the same area was flayed alive for his Dualist beliefs. 9th century Paulicians, who followed St Paul’s writing were outlawed and sent to Bulgaria and Macedonia, and were the forerunners of Bogomils. 

 

Cathars were good, clean living people who were against all violence, and the Roman Catholic Church was saturated with corruption, vice and hypocrisy. Many troubadour poets drew attention to this! Cathars were considered dangerous heretics by the Roman Catholic Church, who issued a death sentence. The Inquisitors described the Cathars as Manichaeans. It is likely that St Augustine was a convert from Manichaeism to Catholicism. Mandeaeism was similar to Manichaeism which believed in reincarnation, the Mani word originating in the word for ‘knowledge’. It was one of the oldest religions in the world. Mandaeists were pacifists, Gnostics and used baptismal rights, following John the Baptist. Like the Manaeists and Cathars, they were dualists, believing the world and humanity as originating in evil. 

Without need of baptism or even marriage, the Cathars regarded as heretics. The pope, Innocent III  granted remission of all sins to those taking part in a crusade against them and the cancelling of all debts to The Jewish money lenders. It began in Beziers, which fell with all inhabitants slaughtered, 7,000 were massacred in the Catholic church of Mary Magdalene where they had taken refuge, in all 30,000 people in the town. The date, July 22, 1209, the feast of Mary Magdalene! After this, Carcassonne, a great fortress, was placed under siege. The negotiator, Roger Trencavel was betrayed and taken into custody and incarcerated in a tower and died shortly after. The war continued for several decades. The pope offered the land of Languadoc to several dukes who refused it, but Simon de Montfort accepted it. The Crusade against the Cathars became his war and he was titled ‘Vicomte of Carcassonne and Beziers’ and surrounding areas. He blinded 100, removed their noses and lips, leaving one with one eye to lead the others on a march to Cabaret. 140 were burnt at the stake at Minerve. 1211 Lavour was taken by storm burning 400 twice the number of Montsegur. After 400 Cathar villages and towns had been destroyed, De Montford was killed in June 1218 when a stone from a catapult hit his head, possibly launched by a woman as women took part in many Cathar sieges. He was followed by his son, Amaury. The Languedoc, once the richest lands in Christendom, never recovered. 

In 1226, Crusaders were marching again with 5,000 Cathar men, women and children hacked to death in Meaux, Tarn and Toulouse included. In 1233, the full persecution of the Inquisition under Dominic began which would last 700 years. Imprisonment for life or for many years, confiscation of property, obligation to go on pilgrimage, wearing a yellow cross, were some penalties, including death by burning. Under interrogation, which involved torture, their faith might be denied, but after, if they returned to the faith, they would be burnt alive.  Silence was presumed as guilt. Anyone providing shelter or food for them was also considered a heretic. Even corpses of the dead were dug up and placed before an inquisitor who found them guilty and the bones were burnt to ashes, their living descendants had any possessions removed. 

Returning to the safe mount of Montsegur! 4,000 ft above sea level - a natural fortress! The pog (peak) is likely to have been a holy hill top since time immemorial. In local caves there is evidence of the cult of Mithras, Druidry was common in the area, and it is thought that sun worship and Manichaeism was also practiced. It became the seat of Catharism with space for 500. In a raid by Raymond VII it was routed by 10,000 royal troops and lasted 9 months and it surrendered in 1244 with the death of hundreds of Cathars. In 1906, Josephin Peladan stated that during the final routing, some Cathars escaped taking with them the Holy Grail - though Cathars were uninterested in relics, they did not have sacraments and did not build churches! They did not honour the crucifix. There were manuscripts, neo-platonism and Greek philosophy of Plato and Pythagoras and these were very highly valued. 

The complete abuse by the Roman Catholic Church on those who were accused of heresy was an example to others to beware of any deviation from orthodoxy. Within a few decades of the Cathar extermination, the Inquisition turned on the Knights Templar Order. 

Article Wendy Stokes https://wendystokes.co.uk