O catharism it was one medieval heresy which developed mainly in southern France and parts of Italy from the 12th century onwards. It was one of the greatest heretical movements of the Low Middle Ages and led the Catholic Church to convene a Crusade to contain its growth. The Cathars are also known as Albigenses, in reference to an important city in southern France that converted to Catharism – Albi. The word Cathar comes from the Greek katharos and it means “pure”.
Origin
Due to similarities in doctrine, historians claim that Catharism is the heir of certain gnostic sects dualistic in character, like the bogomilism, which were extremely common in Eastern Europe. Bogomilism is believed to have entered Western Europe through trade routes. In the first half of the 11th century, small nuclei of Cathars appeared in regions of France, Germany and Italy.
The dualism of the Cathars asserted that all creation linked to the material world it was the work of a Godbad or satan. to one Good God the Cathars attributed only the
worldspiritual. Therefore, for the Cathars, the ideal was the total removal of material things, since, according to their belief, they were linked to the evil god. This means that the Cathars did not attribute creation to God, but believed that the world had been created by the evil god.Catharism was very common among the popular layers of the population, mainly artisans and merchants, but it also converted members of the high nobility of Languedoc (a region in southern France). From the 12th century onwards, heresy was considerably established and began to install bishops in parts of Europe, as Nachman Falbel records:
Around 1149, the first Cathar bishop established himself in northern France; years later, others settled in Albi and Lombardy. […] In the following years more bishops were installed in Italy, and by the end of the century there were already eleven bishoprics in total: one in the North of France, four in the South (Albi, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Val d’Aran), two others were added later, and six in Italy (Concorezzo, near Milan, Desenzano, Bagnolo, Vicenza, Florence and Spoleto) |1|.
The growth of Catharism is attributed mainly to the discontent that existed with the Church from the 11th century. The Church's opulence and corruption were already issues that generated numerous criticisms. Furthermore, Catharism believed that all souls would be saved at the end of time and this may have contributed to the adherence of believers in the regions where it was spread.
Doctrine
The Cathar doctrine believed that the material world was evil from creation and that man's restoration took place through asceticism (penance) and communion with God. Thus, the Cathars believed in celibacy (remaining single), condemned marriage and procreation and did not eat meat (the exception was fish), fats, eggs, milk and cheese |2|.
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Two groups were distinguished within Catharism: the "perfect” and the “believers”. The perfect were people who had already restored their souls and did not mix with believers. They maintained a rigid life of asceticism and sought to have a life of denial of material goods. A person became perfect after receiving the sacrament of the Cathars called the consolamentum.
The believers were people who were not officially considered part of the Cathar Church because they had not been redeemed by the consolamentum. They should show respect for the perfect and, if possible, confess their sins to them. As Cathars condemned marriage, Catholics condemned Cathar believers to maintaining a life of sexual debauchery.
Finally, they believed that human souls were actually angels imprisoned by the evil god in human bodies. They also regarded Christ as an angel, who was sent to save imprisoned souls. Furthermore, they believed that Christ did not literally materialize in a human body, which would be a creation of the evil god. Finally, they denied the Old Testament, accusing it of being the work of an evil god.
Crusade against the Albigenses
The growth of Catharism in southern France and northern Italy motivated the mobilization of the Catholic Church in the fight against heresy, which resulted in two crusades:
Crusadespiritual (1147-1209)
CrusadeAlbigensian (1209-1229)
At spiritual crusade, the initially peaceful role of the Church in trying to combat the spread of Catharism from the preaching and exhortation of the sent priests. At councils held by the Catholic Church, Catharism was considered heresy and its adherents were excommunicated. The end of the spiritual Crusade came when a pope's envoy named Pedro de Castelnau was assassinated in 1208.
THE Albigensian crusade was the phase in which there was the use of military means to crush Catharism in France. Pope Innocent III called on the French secular authorities to mobilize armies in the fight against the Cathars. For twenty years there have been fighting in the region of dissemination of Catharism between the authorities summoned by the Pope against the high nobility that adhered to Catharism. Historians report the violence of the fighting on both sides.
The Albigensian Crusade ended in 1229, when the greatest representative of Catharism, Raimundo VII, accepted the impositions of the Catholic Church. The fervor of the Cathars diminished thereafter, however, other rebellions were recorded, which led to an increase in the persecution against the small Cathar nuclei that had survived the Crusades. From the 14th century onwards, Catharism was eradicated in France. Few of the faithful fled persecution and went to Italy, however, in that country, they were targets of Inquisition.
|1| FALBEL, Nachman. Medieval heresies. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1977, p.38-39
|2|Idem, p.55.
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
