The twenty-year “crusade” against the Cathars began under the pontificate of Innocent III after attempts to win back the heretics by preaching failed. Strongest in southern France, Beziers and Carcassonne fell to the crusaders first, resulting in large-scale massacres.
Cathars, like their contemporary Waldensians, rejected the established church for many reasons both theological and political. Ultimately, the destruction of the Cathar movement helped to institute a formal Inquisition designed to root out heresy.
Beliefs of the Cathars
Taking their cue from the early church as found in the Acts of the Apostles, Cathars rejected the ostentatious wealth and luxury of the 12th Century Catholic Church. Their very name, Cathari, means “pure.” Yet at the same time Cathars accepted a form of dualism, influenced by the earlier Manichaean heresies that still persisted in the backward regions of what was once the Roman Empire.
Cathars believed that the earth had been created by Satan. Hence, all matter was evil. Only spirit, created by God, offered eternal light. This belief led Cathars to reject the fullness of Christ as well as his resurrection. Although Platonic dualism had found its way into church beliefs in earlier centuries, the Cathar implications were far more serious.
Cathars rejected the sacraments as well as marriage and subscribed to reincarnation. As their numbers grew, notably in southern France and northern Italy, various popes took notice, sending preachers like Bernard of Clairvaux to win back the heretics. It was Pope Innocent III who took sterner measures, particularly after the murder of a papal legate.
Secular Considerations in the Cathar Communities
French historian Georges Duby postulates that Cathar expansion was aided by the bishops and abbots of southern France when they imposed a church tax or tithe, heretofore unknown in the region. Additionally, unlike within the Catholic Church, Cathars practiced no gender disparity, allowing women an equal status. This aspect may explain why women, especially high born women, found Cathar beliefs appealing.
The Cathar movement was also strongest in the fortified towns, like Beziers and Carcassonne where a greater degree of open discussion was tolerated among townsfolk. These discussions included religious issues and often involved public debates in the marketplace squares. For similar reasons, the 16th Century Reformation was also strongest in towns while the same phenomena existed among the French Huguenots in the late 16th Century.
Suppression of the Cathars
By 1209 Pope Innocent III succeeded in securing French military support in implementing a final solution to the Cathars. Knights as well as rabble converged on Cathar strongholds. At Beziers, the Catholic legate was told that many faithful Catholics also lived in the city. His response, however, was “Kill all, kill all, for God will know his own.”
Such church leaders had no problem using clubs to bash in the brains of innocent women and children as they were forbidden to use a sword. The entire population of Beziers was massacred. Carcassonne, however, surrendered and the Count, Raymond Roger, was imprisoned. After the movement was considered stamped out, the lands were added to the domains of the French crown.
The suppression of the Cathars led to the institutionalizing of the Inquisition, dominated by Dominicans, and charged with investigating heresy. Ever more vigilant, the church forbade the laity to read the Bible and prohibited any vernacular translations. The Cathar experiment would not be repeated for several centuries.
Note: Cathars are also called Albigensians, named for Albi in France, a Cathar stronghold.
Sources:
- Georges Duby, France in the Middle Ages 987-1460 (Blackwell Publishers, 1999)
- Brian Tierney and Sidney Painter, Western Europe in the Middle Ages 300-1475 5th Ed. (McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1992)
- Williston Walker, A History of the Christian Church 3rd Ed. (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970)
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