Were Cathars Christian?

Xero Corp

From the 11th to the 14th centuries, the Catholic Church was troubled by Cathars, members and
sympathisers of a religious movement in the south-east of Europe.1 Cathars were condemned as
"worse than Jews" by Hildegard in 1136,2 and "worse than the Saracens" by Pope Innocent III in
1208.3 In 1209, the town of Beziers refused to hand over 222 Cathar elites to the Pope's soldiers.
Describing the response of the Catholic forces, the Pope's legate effused: "Our men spared no one,
irrespective of rank, sex or age, and put to sword almost 20,000 people".4 The Church's response to
Catharism began in 1143, when Everinus first mentioned the Cathars in a letter to St. Bernard of
Clairvaux,5 and ended 1330, when the last Cathar was burned.6 At stake was the sect's religious
status. The Cathars claimed to be Apostolic reformers. To Catholic authorities, Catharism was a
highly dangerous heresy. This essay will consider the question of whether the Cathars were
Christian. By assessing the sermons and pronouncements from Catholic authorities, as well as a
primary Cathar source, it will emerge that any answer will depend on competing claims of Christian
religiosity.

The Catholic campaign of suppression of course expressed the fervent belief that the Cathars were
not Christian; at least not in any sense permissible to the Roman Church. The Cathars themselves
differed on this score, and regarded themselves as rightful heirs of a reformed Apostolic tradition.7
In marked contrast to their dissipated Catholic counterparts, the elite of the Cathar community lived
as models of abstemious piety. As we will see, Cathars openly denounced Catholic authorities as
illegitimate, and not only supplanted Catholic doctrine in the Languedoc region, but replaced the
Catholic ecclesiastical system with their own.
While an ideal historiographical review would involve documents from both sides of the sectarian
1 Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation (Oxford, Malden: Blackwell Publishing,
2002), p115ff.

2 "Look to your city and your district, and cast out those wicked men from your midst, for they are like the Sadducees and worse than Jews. For as
long as they are with you, you cannot be safe and free from anxiety.' Hildegard of Bingen. The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen, Volume I. (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1994), p63.

3 Innocent III, cited in Christopher Tyerman, God's War: A New History of the Crusades. (London: Penguin 2007), p108.
4Arnald Amalric, cited in W A Sibley & M D Sibley The Chronicle of William of Puylaurens: The Albigensian Crusade and Its Aftermath.
Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2003, p128.
5 Edward Peters, Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe. (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1980), p91
6 Steven Runciman, The Medieval Manichee: A Study of the Christian Dualist Heresy. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p146.
7 Lambert, p116-7.

divide central to this question, two factors will skew the evidence considered squarely toward the
Catholic side. Firstly, the Catholic authorities were far less tolerant of religious difference in their
midst, and so any points of difference between Catholicism and Catharism were for them points of
urgent discussion and response. Secondly, the attempts by the Roman Church to suppress the Cathar
were particularly successful, and so the documentary evidence and history of the Cathars is
necessarily scant. The evidence assessed also skews toward the period preceding the Albigensian
Crusade; later commentary often restated or was derived from these earlier documents and
pronouncements.

In 1143, Everinus, the Prior of a Catholic abbey near Cologne, wrote to Bernard of Clairvaux
concerning heretics found amongst the local community.8 These heretics gave the Prior cause for
great concern, for a number of reasons: they openly opposed the authority of the Church;

There have been lately some heretics discovered: amongst us, near Cologne ... two of
these, viz. one that was a Bishop amongst them, and his companions, openly opposed us in
the assembly of the Clergy and laity, the Lord Archbishop himself being present, with many
of the nobility maintaining their heresy from the words of Christ and the Apostles.9

they tenaciously and joyfully clung to their beliefs even in death,

unwilling to repent, they were seized by the people, being incited by overmuch zeal, and put
into the fire, and burnt; and (what is most wonderful) they entered to the stake, and bare the
torment of the fire, not only with patience, but with joy and gladness. In this case, O holy
Father, were I present with you, I should be glad to have your answer, how these members of
the Devil could with such courage and constancy persist in their heresy, as is scarcely to be
8 Everinus, cited in Peters, p91. Everinus actually distinguishes between two groups of heretics, later judged to be "Manichees" as well as "Cathars",
but the beliefs and behaviours he enumerates all came to characterise Cathar belief and behaviour. Most commentators responding to his letter,
including its recipient Bernard, find little substance in his distinction.
9 Ibid.

found in the most religious in the faith of Christ.10

they pursued an empoverished Apostolic life;

Their heresy is this: They say that the Church is only amongst them, because they alone
follow the steps of Christ, and continue in the imitation of the true apostolic life, not seeking
the things of this world, possessing neither house, lands, nor any thing in propriety,
according as Christ did, who neither possessed any himself, nor gave leave to his disciples to
possess any thing.11

and rejected the Church is its worldly wealth,

Whereas ye (say they to us) join house to house, and field to field, seeking the things of this
world; so that even they also, who are looked upon as most perfect amongst you, such as are
your Monks and Regular Canons, though they do not possess these things as proper, but as
common, yet do they possess all these things.12

By means of this distinction they compared themselves to Apostles and Martyrs, thereby claiming
greater spiritual authority than their worldly Catholic counterparts;

And of themselves they say, We the poor of Christ, who have no certain abode, fleeing from
one city to another, like sheep in the midst of wolves, do endure persecution with the
Apostles and Martyrs: notwithstanding that we lead an holy and strict life in fasting and
abstinence, persevering day and night in prayers and labors, and seeking only from thence
what is necessary to support our lives, we maintain ourselves thereby because we are not of
10 Ibid.
11Everinus, cited in Peters, p92.
12 Ibid.

the world. But as for you lovers of the world, ye have peace with the world, because ye are
of the world.13

Further, they rejected the Priesthood and Sacraments (other than adult baptism),

they make void the priesthood of the Church, and condemn the sacraments besides baptism
only; and this only in those who are come to age14

they rejected the intercession of Saints, fasting, and prayers for the dead,

They put no confidence in the intercession of the saints; they maintain that fasting, and other
afflictions which are undertaken for sin, are not necessary to the just, nor to sinners ... and all
other things observed in the Church, which have not been established by Christ himself or
his Apostles, they call superstitions. They do not admit of any purgatory fire after death ...
by which means they make void all the prayers and oblations of believers for the deceased.15

and, perhaps most serious of all, they had adherents even among the clergy and monks of the
Catholic Church;

those of them who have returned to our Church, told us, that they had great numbers
of their persuasion scattered almost every where and that amongst them were many
of our Clergy and Monks.16

For all these reasons is the Prior concerned about this movement, which he has already labelled

13 Ibid.
14 Everinus, cited in Peters, p93.
15 Everinus, cited in Peters, p94.
16 Ibid.

heretical, and entreats the Cistercian Abbott of Clairvaux to turn his pen to this pernicious threat.
This Bernard did, responding promptly in his series of sermons on the Song of Songs. In sermon 65,
after condemning the secrecy of the heretics, and calling into doubt their chastity, he addresses the
outward appearance of the Cathar elite; the so-called 'good men' or Perfects, and expresses concern
that their heresy is disguised beneath an appearance of piety and orthodoxy;

if you question him about his faith, nothing could be more orthodox; if [you question him]
as to his way of life, nothing could be more irreproachable; and he proves his words by his
deeds. What you see is a man frequenting the church, honoring the clergy, offering his gifts,
making his confession, receiving the sacraments. What can be more orthodox. As far as his
life and conduct are concerned he harms no-one, distresses no-one, does not set himself
above anyone. His face is pale from fasting, he does not eat the bread of idleness, he
supports himself with the labor of his hands.17

In the same sermon, Bernard also likens Catharism to heresies of the past (while not allowing an
opportunity for slander to escape);

The points in which we allege they are mistaken are indefensible, and not so much subtle as
plausible, and then only to peasant girls and imbeciles, such as are all I have met of this way
of thinking. I do not recall having heard anything in all their many statements which made
any contribution to knowledge, but only trite sayings well-aired by heretics of old, yet
crushed and exploded by our theologians.18

In this claim is probably an allusion to the Cathar's metaphysical dualism, common to many
heretical beliefs with which the Church had previously dealt, and to which we will return below.
17 Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon 65, cited in Peters, 95-101.
18

Ibid.

Bernard continues his denunciation of the new heretics in his following sermon, recommending
against making martyrs of them, but simultaneously forgiving the righteous wrath of those who
could not help but put heresy to the sword.

people have attacked them, making new martyrs for the cause of godless heresy. We applaud
their zeal, but do not recommend their action, because faith should be a matter of
persuasion, not of force, though no doubt it is better for them to be restrained by the sword
of someone who bears not the sword in vain than to be allowed to lead others into heresy.
Anyone who punishes a wrong-doer in righteous wrath is a servant of God.19

Everinus, in his letter to Bernard, seemed particularly worried that the joy with which these heretics
met their deaths was a sign of religiosity "as is scarcely to be found in the most religious in the faith
of Christ."20 Bernard takes up the Prior's point, explaining that the apparent piety of the heretics was
due to the influence of the devil:

It is surprising to some people that they [the Cathars] meet their death not only with
patience, but also, apparently, joyfully. But they do not take into consideration the mighty
power of the devil not only over men's bodies, but also over their hearts. ... The obstinacy of
these men has nothing in common with the constancy of the martyrs; for they [the Martyrs]
were endowed by their piety with a contempt for death, whereas these others [the Cathars]
are prompted by their hardness of heart.21

The Church's efforts did little to stem the growth of the heresy in the following 20 years, such that
the famous Benedictine Abbess Hildegard of Bingen was moved to speak out against them in 1163.
In comparing the apparent piety of the heretics to the corrupt dissipation of the clergy in her sermon
19 Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon 66.
20 Everinus, cited in Peters, p91.

21Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon 66.

to the Shepherds of the Church (the clergy of Cologne), she both visits one of her favoured subjects
and indicates the appeal of the heresy among the people, for whom the Roman Church's corruption
was a source of ongoing frustration.

You reel and stumble, since your works do not give you the right answer, and, like a drunk
man, you do not know what you are doing... you are not presenting a wholesome and stable
example of morality before the people ... ruin will fall upon you at the hands of certain
people [heretics], you wicked sinners, and they will pursue you relentlessly, and they will
not cover up your works, but will lay them bare, ... they will mock your wicked ways and
sneer at you.22

Hildegard notes the support the heresy is receiving from secular powers, before identifying a source
of future trouble and strife for the Church: the comparison between the clergy's negligence and
corruption with the deceptive piety of the Cathar perfects.

the people who will do this, themselves seduced by the devil and serving as his emissaries,
will come with wan faces and, clothing themselves in sanctity, will ally themselves with
great secular princes. And they will say to them about you: Why do you keep them with you
and how can you stand to have them near you, when they are polluting the whole earth with
their iniquity?
The people who say these things about you will walk about in black robes, with
proper tonsure, and will appear to men serene and peaceful in all their ways. Moreover, they
do not love avarice, and do not have money, and, in their secret selves, they hold abstinence
as so great a virtue that they can scarcely be reproached.23

22 Hildegard of Bingen. The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen, Volume I. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p57-58.
23 Hildegard, p58.

Her tone urgent and passionate, Hildegard predicts a violent suppression of the Catholic faith if her
suggestions are not implemented.

Wake up! The misguided people of today have no idea what they are doing, no more than
those who went before us in times past. For, at that time, others who err in the Catholic faith
will fear them and will serve them slavishly, imitating them as much as possible. And when
the full gamut of this error has been run, these people will everywhere persecute and exile
the teachers and wise men who remain true to the Catholic faith - but not all of them,
because some of them are mighty knights for God's justice. Moreover, they will not be able
to affect certain congregations of saints, whose way of life is upright. For this reason, they
advise princes and wealthy men to coerce teachers, wise men, and clerics with club and staff
so that they may be made "just". And in some cases this will be accomplished, causing
others to tremble with fear.24

The irony of course is that a violent suppression did take place subsequently, but it was the Cathars
who were trembling with fear. The Council of Tours met in the same year, and condemned the
Albigensian heresy, prohibiting their toleration and even commercial trade with the heretics, in their
fourth Canon, in the hope that the heretics might be brought back to the Church.

In parts of Toulouse a damnable heresy has recently emerged, which is gradually spreading
towards neighbouring areas and diffusing like a canker ... Wherefore against them, we
command that the bishops and all the priests of the Lord having their abode in those parts to
be vigilant, and under the penalty of anathema to prohibit them where they are known to
follow this heresy, nor to afford any one of them shelter on their land, or presume to impart
protection. Commercial trade with them is forbidden; neither the sale nor the purchase of
things may be undertaken with them, in order that that source of comfort to mankind might
24 Hildegard, p59.

at least force them to see the errors of their lives to return to their senses.25

Such was the influence and hubris of the Cathars at this time that two years later, in 1165, the
Archbishop of Narbonne called for a public debate between Cathar and Catholic delegates, the
Council of Lombers.26 The Cathars furnished two delegates who answered questions in general
terms regarding Catharism. The outcome was predictable enough; the presiding Catholic bishop
pronounced the Cathars heretics and the Cathars pronounced the bishop and Church heretics. More
surprising was that the Council saw fit only to order noblemen not to support the heresy, though
more stringent countermeasures were not long in arriving.27

Two years later, in 1167, the Cathars led their own Council, at Saint-Felix-de-Caraman, in which
they conducted business in the manner of an independent church: administering the central rite of
the Consolamentum, and appointing bishops and bishoprics.28

In 1179, the Third Council of the Lateran, in Canon 27, reasserted the call of the Council of Tours;
that those sympathetic to Catharism were under anathema to the Catholic Church. The Lateran
Council seemed particularly incensed that the heresy had grown so widespread and bold that it was
now practiced and supported openly, rather than in secret;

in Gascony and the regions of Albi and Toulouse and in other places the loathsome heresy of
those whom some call the Cathars ... has grown so strong that they no longer practise their
wickedness in secret, as others do, but proclaim their error publicly and draw the simple and
weak to join them, we declare that they and their defenders and those who receive them are
under anathema, and we forbid under pain of anathema that anyone should keep or support

25 Council of Tours, cited in H J Warmer, The Albigensian Heresy. (London Macmillan, 1922), p41-42.

26 Peters, p117ff. Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, Volume 1. (New York: Cosimo 2005), p118
27 Lea, p119.
28 Peters, p121ff. Lea, p119

them in their houses or lands or should trade with them.29

This sentence of perpetual anathema to heretics in general (and Cathars in particular) and their
supporters received papal confirmation with the issuance of the decretal and bull "Ad Abolendam"
by Pope Lucius III in 1184;

To abolish the malignity of diverse heresies, which of late time are sprung up in most parts
of the world ... we condemn all manner of heresy, by what name soever it may be
denominated. More particularly we declare all Cathari ... to lie under a perpetual anathema30

This pronouncement was incorporated as Canon 3 of the 4th Lateran Council in 1215, which for the
first time called for the 'extermination' (exterminare) of the heretics.31 Such extermination had in
fact taken place en masse six years earlier at Beziers, when close to 20,000 people were killed,
without regard to class, gender or age, as the opening gambit of the Albigensian Crusade, which
saw the legal opposition of the Church's Inquisition escalated to a full military campaign.

So far we have considered the points of difference thought significant by Catharism's Catholic
interlocutors, and clearly established a basis on which those commentators had decided against
Catharist claims to Christianity. To more properly consider that proposition however, it is instructive
to consider more deeply the sect's theology. One of the most insightful analyses of Cathar theology
from this time comes from Pierre des Vaux de Cernay, a Cistercian monk who wrote Historia
Albigensis in or around 1215. He begins by, significantly, outlining Catharism's theological
dualism32, surely the primary means by which the claim of Catharist Christianity might be rejected;
29 Third Lateran Council, cited in Peters, p168ff.
30 Lucius III, cited in Peters, p170ff.

31

Fourth Lateran Council, cited in John Evans, The Statutes of the Fourth General Council of Lateran, (London: L & G Seeley, 1843), p30.

32 Though the view of Catharist theology as dualistic is widely supported by commentators both contemporary and subsequent, some have
distinguished within Catharist thought a moderate from a radical dualism, dependent on whether the negative principle is identified with a fallen angel
(Lucifer or Satan) or with a god (Demiurge) respectively.

First it is to be known that the heretics held that there are two creators: viz. one of invisible
things, whom they called the benevolent god, and another of visible things, whom they
named the malevolent god. The New Testament they attributed to the benevolent god, but
the Old Testament to the malevolent god, and rejected it altogether, except certain authorities
which are inserted in the New Testament from the Old, which, out of reverence to the New
Testament, they esteemed worthy of reception.33

Given that Christianity before and since the Cathars, as well as the Judaic tradition from which it
derived, have overwhelmingly been monotheistic faiths, positing a dualistic theology indeed seems
credible grounds for rejecting the claim that the Cathars were Christians. The historian continues to
explain the Catharists' docetic or dualistic Christology;

They said also, in their secret doctrine, that Christ who was born in the visible and terrestrial
Bethlehem and crucified in Jerusalem was a bad man ... For the good Christ, as they said,
never ate, nor drank, nor took upon him true flesh, nor ever was in this world 34

The commentator goes on to detail not only their rejection of Catholic authority, but their
justification for same.

They said that almost all the Church of Rome was a den of thieves, and that it was the harlot
of which we read in the Apocalypse. They so far annulled the sacraments of the Church, as
publicly to teach that the water of holy baptism was just the same as river water, and that the
Host of the most holy body of Christ did not differ from common bread, instilling into the
ears of the simple this blasphemy, that the body of Christ, even though it had been as great
33 Pierre des Vaux de Cernay, Historia Albigensis, cited in Peters, p124.
34 Ibid.

as the Alps, would have been long ago consumed and annihilated by those who had eaten of
it. Confirmation and confession they considered as altogether vain and frivolous.35

Peter also explicates Catharism's primary ecclesiastical distinction, which, prior to the Crusade, had
all but supplanted the Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy in affected regions;

It is also to be known that some among the heretics were called "perfect" or "good men";
others "believers" of the heretics. Those who were called perfect wore a black dress, falsely
pretended to chastity, abhorred the eating of flesh, eggs and cheese, wished to appear not
liars when they were continually telling lies, chiefly respecting God. They also said that they
ought not on any account to swear. Those were called "believers" of the heretics, who lived
after the manner of the world, and who though they did not attain so far as to imitate the life
of the perfect, nevertheless hoped to be saved in their faith; and though they differed as to
their mode of life, they were one with them in belief and unbelief.36

Lambert notes that it was only the Cathar elite, the perfects, who were regarded as Christians with
Catharist tradition, and that because they alone pursued an Apostolic life.37

Scant documentary evidence of Cathar theology or metaphysics by Cathar authors remains extant.
The most valuable source in this respect is called the Book of Two Principles, probably written
1240-1250.38 The identity of its author is unknown. Though its writer is not possessed of the clarity
of thought or exposition of some of his opponents, in most important respects it supports the
Catholic commentators' version of Cathar theology. In keeping with its title, the book begins by
asserting the existence of two metaphysical principles, by appealing to proofs both philosophical
35 Ibid.
36 Pierre des Vaux de Cernay, cited in Peters, p125.
37 Lambert, p118.
38 Book of Two Principles, cited in Walter L Wakefield & Austin P Evans, Heresies of the High Middle Ages: Selected Sources Translated and
Annotated. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), p515ff.

and Biblical.

I wish to begin my discussion concerning the two principles by refuting the belief in one
Principle, however much this may contradict well-nigh all religious persons. We may
commence as follows: Either there is only one First Principle, or there is more than one. If,
indeed, there were one and not more, as the unenlightened say, then, of necessity, He would
be either good or evil.. But surely not evil, since then only evil would proceed from Him
and not good, as Christ says in the Gospel of the Blessed Matthew: "And the evil tree
bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree
bring forth good fruit."39

The author goes on to cite Biblical evidence for the existence of more than one God.

realize that through the evidence of the Holy Scriptures it may clearly be learned that there
is another god, a lord and prince other than the true Lord God. For the Lord says through
Jeremiah," "As you have forsaken me and served a strange god in your own land, so shall
you serve strange gods in a land that is not your own."40

The evidence presented for this claim is the numerous times the Bible mentions other gods

the same Apostle says in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: "For although there be that are
called gods, either in heaven or on earth (for there be gods many, and lords many), yet to us
there is but one God." And Christ says in the Gospel of Matthew: "No man can serve two
masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will sustain the one and
despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." ... So it is clearly seen that through
39 Book of Two Principles, cited in Wakefield & Evans, p516
40 Book of Two Principles, cited in Wakefield & Evans, p557

the evidence of the Holy Scriptures many gods, lords, and princes in enmity to the true Lord
God and His son Jesus Christ can manifestly be discovered, as has just been plainly set
forth.41

Further Biblical evidence is subsequently presented to support the notion of universe being
uncreated and eternal and consisting of two principles, as outlined above; the evil material realm,
coexistent with a good realm of pure spirituality.42

In weighing the question of the Cathars supposed Christianity, we find the matters devolves to
competing definitions of Christianity. If we accept the definition that was maintained (at
immeasurable cost) by Catholic authorities, then we of course have no choice but to roundly reject
any claim Catharism's theological dualism might have of being Christian. If however, we adopt a
definition as might be useful to a historian of religion, we must concede that the Cathars derived
from a Christian tradition, aspired to live Apostolic lives in accordance with (certain) Biblical texts,
and saw themselves as reformers who hoped to bring about changes to the western Christian
tradition. In this broad sense, the Cathars must necessarily be identified with Christianity over any
other religion. That said, the thorough metaphysical and theological dualism of Cathar belief put it
at odds with mainstream Christian theology, so while we might accept it into the broad church of
Christian sects, this can only be done while bearing in mind this important caveat.

41 Ibid.
42 Book of Two Principles, cited in Wakefield & Evans, p557-559.

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