The Cathars

“The Roman Church is not ashamed to say that they are the sheep and lambs of Christ, and they say that the heretics they persecute are the church of wolves. But this is absurd, for the wolves have always pursued and killed the sheep, and today it would have to be the other way around for the sheep to be so mad as to bite, pursue, and kill the wolves, and for the wolves to be so patient as to let the sheep devour them!” (from the writings of the Cathars)

While the waves of Crusaders were crashing on the shores of Palestine, the common people of Europe were experiencing a crisis of faith. They could not find God in the churches, with their corrupt clergy and droning Latin liturgy, and were turning elsewhere in their groping for Him.

Everywhere in Europe the leaven of religious dissent was spreading. New and diverse sects were sprouting up everywhere, sharing in common a thirst for the pure source of the gospel, and a return to the pattern of the primitive church. There emerged two main trends: one leaning towards poverty and preaching (such as the Waldensians ), and the other leaning towards hard work and ritualistic life (such as the Cathars ). An important common attraction to these movements was their preaching in the language of the people. They were also characterized by their common and dangerous conviction: “It is better to obey God than to obey men!”

Men and women sought a rampart against the evil they saw present everywhere. They scoffed at the superstitious practices of the Church, criticized infant baptism and denied the validity of sacraments given by a corrupt clergy. They preached detachment from this low world, whose prince is Satan, and waited for the promise of “a new heaven and a new earth where justice will dwell.”

The 11th century was the century of monks and knights, but also of religious dispute. As such, it was the century of heretics. The papal church often referred to them as Manicheans . 1 The name, once given, provided a convenient link to the historical use of force against such heresies and also by naming them so, the heresy was branded as an Eastern dualist movement, 2 effectively disqualifying them and keeping the debate away from the errors of Roman Catholicism. With violent reaction, the Church opposed those whom the clergy named as false prophets and servants of Satan, compelling the state to enact her repressions: floggings, branding with hot irons, expulsions, and inevitably, executions. Seven centuries had passed since the execution of a Christian for heresy, 3 but the new millennium would begin with 13 heretics being burned at the stake in Orléans in 1022. It marked the beginning of the violent and systematic religious repression which would be the Church’s practice for centuries.

Heretics Everywhere

Heretics were discovered in Champagne, in Aquitaine, in Périgord, and also in Arras where the bishop “reconciled” many in 1025. In northern Italy, an important and active group was collectively burned at the stake around the same year. Then in 1184 the Synod of Verona put forth the mandate for the Inquisition:

In order to do away with various heresies which have recently started to proliferate in several parts of the world, it is necessary to rouse the force of the Church... Therefore we decree that first of all the Cathars and Patarins be permanently anathematized, then those who falsely call themselves the Humble or Poor of Lyon, and... all those, either forbidden or not sent, without authorization by the Holy See or the local bishop, who are so presumptuous as to preach in public or in private, as well as all those who do not fear to think or teach about the Eucharist, baptism, confession, marriage and the other sacraments in any way other than that which the sacrosanct Roman Church preaches and observes, and generally anyone who has been judged as a heretic by the Roman Church herself. 4

All over Europe the sects, as soon as detected, were destroyed, their leaders tortured and the followers dispersed. New movements continued to appear, sometimes even churches were organized, but always in a general climate of clandestine activity, suspicion, and often of terror.

The land of Languedoc 5 provided asylum for the sect known as the Cathari or Cathars, 6 first because of their good reputation with both lords and the common people, and later because of the castles of the region in some of which they took refuge. So, in spite of the preaching campaign of St. Bernard in 1145 to convert the heretics, the Cathar Church organized itself with the open complicity and tolerance of the great barons.