Cathar

:This article is about a religious movement called "Catharism", for the information on a Star Wars race under the same name, see the list of Star Wars races. To see information on the band with the same name see Cathar (Band).

Beliefs

Catharism was based on the idea that the world was evil. This was a distinct feature of older versions of Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, such as Manicheanism and the theology of the Bogomils, and the appearance of this idea in Catharism was probably due to the influence of these older Gnostic lines of thought. According to the Cathars, the world had been created by an evil deity known to the Gnostics as the Demiurge. The Cathars identified the Demiurge with the being the Christians called Satan. Earlier Gnostics, however, did not identify the Demiurge with Satan.

Related Topics:
Gnosticism - Neoplatonism - Manicheanism - Bogomils - Demiurge - Christians - Satan

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The Cathars also believed that souls would be reborn. The way to escape was to live an ascetic's life, and to be not corrupted by the world. Those that did live this life were called 'Perfects' (Parfaits). They had the power to wipe away a person's sins and connections to the material world, so that they would go to heaven when they died. The Perfects themselves lived lives of unimpeachable frugality, in stark contrast to those that lived within the corrupt and opulent church of the time. Commonly, the wiping away of sin, called the consolamentum, was performed on someone about to die. After receiving this, the believer would almost always stop eating, so that they could die faster, and with less taint from the world. The consolamentum was the only sacrament of the Cathar faith. They did not perform any rite of marriage, as procreation (bringing more souls into the world) was frowned upon. It was as a result of this particular belief that the term "buggery" was coined (after the 'Bulgars', or 'Bougres') since if they were to give in to sexual temptation, this would at least ensure that no children resulted.

Related Topics:
Reborn - Ascetic - Sacrament - Buggery

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The Cathars also held many beliefs that were odious to the rest of medieval society. They did not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity claiming it was an invention of the Roman Catholic Church. The Catharist concept of Jesus resembled modalistic monarchianism in the West and adoptionism in the East. The Western concept resembled the Oneness doctrine of the nature of God taught by Oneness Pentecostals and Swedenborgians today. Most Cathars, however, believed that Jesus had been an apparition, a ghost, that showed the way to God. They refused to believe that the good God could or would come in material form, since all physical objects were tainted by sin. This specific belief is called docetism. Furthermore, they believed that the god of the Old Testament was the Devil, since he had created the world. They also did not believe in any sacrament except the consolamentum, which was another major heresy.

Related Topics:
Jesus - God - Docetism - Old Testament

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Women were treated as equals, because their physical form was irrelevant; their soul could have been a man's soul before, and it might once again become one.

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One of their ideas most repugnant to feudal Europe was the belief that oaths were a sin, because they attached you to the world. To call them a sin in this manner was very dangerous in a society where illiteracy was wide-spread and almost all business transactions and pledges of allegiance were based on oaths.

Related Topics:
Oath - Illiteracy

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Objection to the Cathars was not strictly theological in as much of what the Cathars taught and practiced had a very destabilizing effect on society. The dualism of the Cathars was also the basis of their moral teaching. Man, they taught, is a living contradiction. Hence, the liberation of the soul from its captivity in the body is the true end of our being. To attain this, suicide is commendable; it was customary among them in the form of the endura (starvation). The extinction of bodily life on the largest scale consistent with human existence is also a perfect aim. As generation propagates the slavery of the soul to the body, perpetual chastity should be practiced, by all Cathars, at all times. Matrimonial intercourse is unlawful; concubinage, being of a less permanent nature, is preferable to marriage. Abandonment of his wife by the husband, or vice versa, is desirable. Procreation was abhorred by the Albigenses even in the animal kingdom. Consequently, abstention from all animal food, except fish, was enjoined. Cathar Perfects also practiced a diet very similar to strict vegetarianism, with one exception. They were required to avoid eating anything considered to be a by-product of sexual reproduction, including cheese, eggs, milk and butter. Having said this, they were allowed to eat fish, as little was then known about the mating habits of marine creatures which were generally believed to simply appear spontaneously in the sea. Their belief in metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls, the result of their logical rejection of purgatory, furnishes another explanation for the same abstinence. To this practice they added long and rigorous fasts. The necessity of absolute fidelity to the sect was strongly inculcated. War and capital punishment were absolutely condemned, an anomality in a crusading age. For these reasons and others, civil and religious authorities took a hard stance against the Cathars.

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