THE CATHARS
The word Cathar is said to mean 'pure', although there are alternative theories about its derivation. The roots of Catharism lay in gnosticism, a heretical creed that claimed to possess redemptive knowledge to do with God. It first appeared in Europe in the 11th century. Catharism, sometimes equated with the Albigensians appealed particularly to women, and by the 14th century there was a strong following within the Church itself.
The pacifism of the Cathars (who were linked with the Bogomills of Bulgaria in the Balkans and the Albigensians, a Manichaean sect of south-west France) is usually claimed to be the origin of the pacifist Baptist and the Quaker religious movements of later Europe, and perhaps of Huguenotism itself.
One of the last Cathars teaching in France claimed that nature was God, and that earth, water and wind were the true trinity. History could only be interpreted in terms of a battle between good and evil and that ignorance brought about man's suffering. Key to their and the later Waldensian doctrine was the belief that church literature should be in the vernacular tongue, and therefore available to all people, a view adopted by Waldo whose beliefs and actions in translating the Bible led to the Waldensian movement. As, at the time, most ordinary people either did not read or know Latin, this was a turning point in religious terms within Christianity. Suicide through voluntary starvation or fast, the endura, was a personal right, a new idea in medieval Europe.
The Cathars travelled widely to spread their beliefs. By the 12th century, the whole of south-eastern Europe had been influenced by their teaching, particularly southern France, their main stronghold. One of their beliefs was that true Christians cannot engage in warfare. This brought them into direct conflict with orthodox thinking in western Europe where the Crusades were believed to be a divine route to salvation. Catharism spread, undeterred, and following the precedent of the Bogomils, they set up their own bishoprics, the first in northern France, with later consecrations in southern France and Lombardy. A group of Cathars entered England in 1162, led by a German named Gerhard, but were branded on the forehead and expelled. In 1210 there was evidence again of Catharism in England.
The Cathars were feared by the orthodox church and consequently persecuted, especially in the German and Swiss cities. Italy was the only place in the 13th century where they ultimately survived. The Dominicans and Franciscans were blamed for encouraging Catharism, and the orthodox church declared war on them in Cologne. The registers of the Inquisition are full of the names of merchants, doctors, lawyers, church officers, noblemen and clerks who were won over to Catharism in the south of France. When attempts to drive them from France met with resistance, the Inquisition took up arms to suppress Catharism.
The Cathars were criticised within the orthodox church for hypocrisy and their unusual gift for dissembling. However, ordinary people, it was claimed, saw them as pious, saintly and full of learning. It is easy to see why Catharism, and the later religious movements of Waldenism and Huguenotism, had such appeal to the educated and wealthier classes. Their beliefs, though, were so little in conflict with the fundamentals of Christianity that they genuinely saw themselves as devout Christians. They lived virtuous and pure lives in a violent and corrupt age, and saw Jesus as a rebel rather than God's harmonious son.
The Cathars were ultimately driven out of existence. The last prominent Cathars were burned at the stake between 1323 and 1324. Although Calvinism, the bedrock of the beliefs of the Huguenots, did not emerge until Calvin published his theses in 1517, it seems unlikely that Manichaean thinking or Cathar ideals did not survive quietly behind closed doors.
For accounts of the history of Catharism try these sites:
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/forrester-roberts/cathars.html
http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?search=Cathar&go=Go
http://gnosistraditions.faithweb.com/mont.html
http://dannyreviews.com/h/Cathars.html
SOURCES
WELLS, H. G. (1920). The Outline of History. Cassell and Company, Ltd.
HEER, F. (1962). (Trans. Sondheimer, Janet.) The Medieval World. Mentor Books.