Cathars

Feb 12
3 min read

Updated: Mar 17

A Christian pseudo-Gnostic movement that flourished in western Europe from the 12th to the 14th century. The name Cathari comes from the Greek catharoi, meaning “pure.” They distinguished themselves from other sects of the period by their dualistic views and their organized church structure. The leaders (men and women) of the Cathars were called “Perfect/Perfecti,” who took a vow of poverty, abstained from eating meat, and sexual relations. Cathars believed that goodness exists only in the spiritual world of the good God and that the material world is evil, created by an evil god or spirit called Satan. The Cathars also taught reincarnation, believing that the soul was doomed to return to the physical world repeatedly, to be encased in a “garment of flesh” until it completed a series of purifications. In the OC, Kayin sees the similarities of these ideas with those taught by the Greek philosopher Empedocles in his Katharmoi, “Purifications.” Particularly the “garment of flesh” concept is strikingly Empedoclian. A number of religious sects in the early Middle Ages professed dualistic beliefs, especially in the Balkans and in the near East, such as the Paulicians and the Bogomils. Cathars were closely connected with these two and were sometimes known in the west as Publicani (a corruption of Pauliciani) or Bougres (“Bulgarians,” as Bulgaria was the home of the Bogomils). The Catholic Church denounced the Cathars as heretical leading to its followers being attacked first by the Albigensian Crusade and later by the Medieval Inquisition, which slaughtered, hanged, and burned them in the thousands, ultimately eradicating the sect.

Montségur, Ruins of the Cathars’ stronghold in southern France.

By Jean-Yves Didier. The original uploader was Jydidier at French Wikipedia. - Prise par Jydidier le 10 août 2004 Transferred from fr.wikipedia to Commons by Pline using Commons Helper., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5741453

Montségur, Ruins of the Cathars’ stronghold in southern France.

By MDanis - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21245043

Montségur, Ruins of the Cathars’ stronghold in southern France.

By Isai Symens - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44937345

It was besieged nine months until in March 1244 when approximately 220 Cathars were burned en masse in a bonfire at the foot of the pog when they refused to renounce their faith. See Claude Lebédel. Understanding the tragedy of the Cathars. Editions Quest-France, 2011, p. 104ff.

Giovanni Bellini, ca. 1505–1507. The Murder of Saint Peter Martyr.

This scene depicts the assassination of Peter of Verona, a friar of the Dominican Order who served as an Inquisitor of the Catholic Church in Lombardy, known for his vigorous preaching and efforts to combat heresy, particularly Catharism. He was allegedly killed by a member of the Cathars on April 6, 1252, and was canonized as

Saint Peter Martyr by Pope Innocent IV just 11 months after his death.