A Conversation for Heresy - Cathars and Heresy of the Free Spirit
The Cathars
Tony the Hermit Started conversation Aug 16, 2004
Your reading of the Cathars is inaccurate. The charges against them by the Roman church were that they indulged in sexual perversions and satanic rites, but the historical evidence (e.g. Cathar documents) suggests the opposite.
Sexual abstinence was part of Cathar teaching, e.g. "the followers of John marry and are given in marriage, whereas my disciples marry not at all but remain as the angels of God in the heavenly kingdom". Cathars were to be pure "in chastity, truth and humility and in all other good virtues which God may deign to grant you". ("The Secret Supper of John", a key Cathar text). The Cathars saw the Church of Rome as promoting moral laxity, with easy confession and absolution.
A good source book for the Cathars is "Heresies of the High Middle Ages" (1991), Austin Evans and Walker Wakefield.
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The Cathars
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