THE CATHARS

GOOD CHRISTIANS
FROM GREEK KAHAROI, THE PURE
(ONES), WAS A (GNOSTIC) CHRISTIAN
DUALIST MOVEMENT THAT THRIVED IN
SOME AREAS OF SOUTHERN EUROPE,
PARTICULARLY NORTHERN ITALY AND
SOUTHERN FRANCE, BETWEEN THE 12TH
AND 14TH CENTURIES.
Cathars maintained a church hierarchy and
practiced a range of ceremonies, but rejected any
idea of priesthood or the use of church buildings.
They divided into ordinary believers who led
ordinary medieval lives, and an inner elect of
Parfaits (men) and Parfaites (women) who led
extremely ascetic lives, yet still worked for their
living generally in manual trades line weaving.
The idea of two Gods for principles, one being
good the other evil, was central to Cathar beliefs.


The good God was the God of the New
Testament and creator of the spiritual realm, as
opposed to the bad God, creator of the physical
world of the Old Testament, whom many Cathars
identified as Satan.
Dualist ideas had a long history, stretching
back well into Pre-Christian times. All of the
essentials were for example known to the
Greek philosophers. Plato held that soul
yearns to fly home on the wings of love to the
world of ideas. According to him it longs to be
freed from the chains of the body.

Early Christianity had adopted neoplatonist
ideas. Neoplatonism taught a doctrine of
salvation alongside dualism.
The Cathars also believed in the
transmigration of souls, as had the
Pythagoreans. In other words, both
Pythagoreans and Cathars believed not only
in reincarnation, but in the rebirth of the soul
in animals as well as humans. Both refrained
from eating meat.
The Cathar view characterized the Catholic
Church as the Church of Wolves or the
Synagogue of Satan.

The Catholic side created some striking
propaganda on the Cathars. When the
propaganda proved only partly successful,
there was only one option left a crusade
THE ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE.
General Cathar Beliefs:
Cathars believed in reincarnation and refused
to eat meat or other animal products, though
fish were allowed.
They were strict about biblical injunctions; e.g.
those about living in poverty, not telling lies, not
killing and not swearing oaths.
The less one had to do with evil (i.e. material
things), the better..
Like Gnostics and Manichaeans before, Cathars only
accepted a part of the Gospels, particularly Johns, and
they utterly rejected the Old Testament. This is what
they argued: the God of Israel was no other than
Jehovah-Satan, the Demiurge.
The Good God was the God of all immaterial things
(such as light and souls). The Bad God was the God of
all material things, including the world and everything in
it. He had contrived to capture souls and imprison them
in human bodies through the process of conception.
By leading a good and conscious enough life, human
beings or rather their souls/spirits could win freedom
from imprisonment and return to heaven, the immaterial
realm of the Good God.
THE INQUISITION
The inquisition was mainly instigated in order to suppress
and destroy the Gnostic wisdom. In effect, to destroy the
truth.
It started in 12th century in France to combat the spread of
the Gnosis, in particular the Cathars and the
Waldensians.

The Cathars were the last large revival of the Gnosis. They
were persecuted and slaughtered, just as their gnostic
brethren and sisters of the Manichaeans, Bogomils,
Paulicians and early true Christians (who were really
dualist).
In 1321, Guillaume Belibaste said to
have been the last Cathar Parfait was
burned at the stake.