(A.D. 1209.)
[Benedictine Martyrology, and Saussaye in his Gallican Martyrology.
Authorities:--William of Puis-Laurent, and other contemporary
historians of the Albigensian war, and the letters of Innocent III.]
The name of the Albigenses probably arose from the condemnation of
these heretics at the council of Albi, under the presidence of Gerard,
bishop of that diocese, in the year 1176.
Under the name was included that vast body of heretics which agreed on
certain fundamental dogmas, but differed on minor particulars, as they
borrowed more or less from Christianity. They inhabited the Duchy of
Narbonne, the Marquisate of Toulouse, and the southern portion of the
Duchy of Aquitaine, mixed with Catholics in some parts, in other parts
comprising the entire population.
Before their condemnation by the Council, they had been known as
Cathari, Patareni or Populicians, a corruption of Paulicians; and
were a branch of that great Manichæan inroad which entered Germany,
Hungary, Bulgaria, and Bohemia, where the name Cathari was corrupted
into Ketzer, and which spread from Northern Italy into the southern
provinces of France, where Manichæism completely displaced Christianity
over a wide area, and gained a head and strength it was unable to
acquire elsewhere.
The fundamental principle of the new Manichæans, from which, as from
a centre, the different sects radiated, was a Dualism of Good and
Evil Principles equally matched, the Evil Principle, the origin of
the visible creation; the Good Principle, the author of that which is
invisible. This opposition of matter and spirit constituted the basis
of their moral systems. These systems were diverse; some, regarding
everything natural and carnal as pertaining to the Evil Principle,
abstained from meat, cheese, and eggs, from marriage, and from whatever
employment attached them to the earth; whilst others, regarding the
soul as so distinct from the body as to be incapable of being soiled or
affected by the actions of the fleshy envelope, gave themselves up to
the grossest licentiousness. Into the theology of these new Manichæans,
contact with Christianity had introduced the person of Christ, but in
their scheme He occupied no necessary place. He was held to be subject
to God, and to have had but a phantom body; He neither suffered,
died, nor rose again, except in appearance. But in opposition to this
Docetism, John de Lugio taught that Christ had a real body; and some of
the Cathari--the late Albigenses--held that the true body was born of
Mary and Joseph, and proceeded from the Evil Principle, and that this
body died on the Cross, but that the spiritual and good Christ was by
no means to be confused with the historical Christ of the Gospels.[9]
[9] The best account of the Manichæan tenets of the medæval heretics is
in Hahn: Geschichte der Ketzer, vol. i.; the texts are given in notes,
upon which he bases his opinion. See also Gieseler's Ecclesiastical
Hist., 3rd division, chap. vii.; but Gieseler is less full and
impartial than Hahn.
With the doctrines specially professed by the Albigenses it is possible
for any one, who chooses, to become thoroughly acquainted, as there
is abundant material from which the requisite information can be
drawn. Such are the decrees of councils condemning categorically
their errors; the bulls of popes and imperial ordinances denouncing
them; the letters of Innocent III.; the statutes of Raymond, Count of
Toulouse; the controversial treatises written against the heretics,
taking each of their doctrines in order, to refute them; and lastly,
the valuable transactions of the Inquisition at Toulouse, published
by Limborch, containing a great number of cases, the interrogations,
and confessions, and sentences; the archives of the Inquisition at
Carcassonne, portions of which are published in Vaissette, and the
Inquisitorial formulary of questions put to Albigenses as to their
faith, in Ricchinus.
The doctrines peculiar to the Albigenses were these:--There were two
Creators, the good God, who was the author of the New Testament, and
who made the world of good spirits; and the bad God, who was the author
of the Old Testament, and Creator of the visible world, and of the
evil spirits.[10] This latter God they called a liar, because he told
the first man: "The day thou eatest of the tree thou shalt surely
die," and man did not die the same day that he broke the commandment;
they also called him a murderer because he slew Pharaoh and his host,
and the inhabitants of the Plain. This bad God was either a fallen
angel,[11] or the Son of the chief God and Creator, who had two sons,
Christ and Satan.[12] Others held that the good God had two wives,
Colla and Coliba, by whom he begat many sons and daughters.[13] Others,
that the men made by the good God were good, but that through union
with women, whom they derived from the Evil Principle, they fell.[14]
The creation of men was veiled in the following myth by some of the
Albigenses. The devil made men out of clay, and bade God send into them
souls. God answered, that men thus constructed would be too strong,
"They would dethrone me." Whereupon Satan made man of the foam of the
sea; and God said, "That is good, he is a mixture of strength and
fragility." And he sent a soul into the man thus made.[15] Generally
the Albigenses held that there were two Christs; one bad, who was born
in Bethlehem of Mary, and who was crucified; and another good, who had
a phantom body and was purely spiritual, and who appeared on earth in
the body of the Apostle Paul. The good Christ neither ate nor drank,
but the bad Christ, the Son of Mary, lived as do other men, and had for
concubine, Mary Magdalene.[16]
[10] "Hæreticus ponit duo principia, diabolum dicens creatorem omnium
visibilium." Pet. Vallium Sarnaii, apud _Bouquet_ xix. p. 5. Reiner in
Max. Bibl. xxv. p. 263. "Quorum finis est Manichæorum induere sectam et
duos fateri Deos, quorum malignus, ut procaciter mentiuntur, creavit
omnia visibilia."--Lucas Tudens. xvi., p. 240.
[11] "Sathanam magnum Luciferum qui propter elevationem et nequitiam
suam de throno bonorum cecidit angelorum, creatorem cœli et terræ,
omniumque rerum visibilium et invisiblium, spirituum malorum creatorem
et principem et Deum esse profitebantur ipsumque legem Moysi dedisse
asseverant."--Chron. Gonfredi in _Bouquet_ xii., p. 448.
[12] "Erant alii hæretici qui dicebant quod unus est Creator; sed
habuit filios, Christum et diabolum." Petr. Vall. Sarn. apud _Bouquet_
xix. p. 5.
[13] Petr. Vall. Sarn. ib., c. 2.
[14] Ibid., p. 5.
[15] Arch. Inquisit. Carcass. in _Vaissette_ iii., p. 435.
[16] "Dicebant in secreto suo, quod Christus ille qui natus est in
Bethleem, terrestori et visibili, et in Hierusalem crucifixus, malus
fuit; et quod Maria Magdalena fuit ejus concubina, et ipsa fuit muiler
in adulterio deprehensa, de qua legitur in Evangelio. Bonus enim
Christus ... nunquam comedit vel bibit, nec veram carnem assumpsit, nec
unquam fuit in hoc mundo nisi spiritualiter in corpore Pauli." Petr.
Vall. Sarn. apud _Bouquet_ xix. p. 5 "Quod Dei filius non assumpsit
in beata et de beata Virgine carnem veram, sed fantasticam." Reg.
Inquisit. Carcass. apud _Vaissette_ ii. p. 372.
The Trinity was naturally rejected by the Albigenses, as incompatible
with their Dualism. They also rejected the Old Testament as the work of
the Evil Principle; and regarded Moses, the Prophet, and even John the
Baptist, as possessed with evil demons.[17]
[17] Petr. Vall. Sarn. ib. xix. p. 5; Reiner, in Mar. Bibl. xxv. p.
263; Lucas Tudens. ib. p. 241; Acta Conc. Lumbar. _Bouquet_ xiv. p. 438.
With regard to the future, some of the Albigenses taught that the souls
of men were the fallen angels condemned to spend seven lives in human
bodies. Others denied the existence of the soul altogether.[18] With
such disbelief in the immortality of the soul, or such notion of its
being an angel in a state of purgation, the resurrection of the body,
Purgatory and Hell were rejected; and with them, prayer for the dead
and invocation of saints--for how pray for a soul which is annihilated,
or how invoke an apostate angel?[19]
[18] Petr. Vall. Sarn. ib. p. 5, 6. "Dicunt quod anima hominis non est
nisi purus sanguis," Reg. Inq. Carcass. _Vaissette_ p. 327.
[19] Lucas Tud. in Max. Bibl. xxv. De altera vita, p. 193-212.
The idea of a visible Church, and the necessity of sacraments, could
not be entertained with such a creed; and the Albigenses repudiated
baptism, communion, and other rites. Marriage they denounced as
fornication, and they condemned intercourse between man and woman as
sin in the higher ranks of the elect.[20] Others, however, said that
fornication was no sin.[21] But this refers to the lower order of the
faithful.
[20] Reiner, in Max. Bibl. xxv. p. 263. Petr. Vall. Sarn. apud
_Bouquet_ xix. p. 5, etc. "Sacrum matrimonium meretricium esse, nec
aliquem in ipso salvari posse prædicabant, filios et filias generando."
[21] "Dicunt quod simplex fornicatio non est peccatum aliquod." Reg.
Inq. Carcass. _Vaissette_ iii. p. 371.
The faithful were divided into two orders: the higher, or "perfect,"
who wore a black dress, abstained from marriage, the eating of
flesh, eggs, and cheese; and the "believers," who gave free scope to
their lusts, and whose salvation was due to a certain ceremony being
performed over them by one of the "perfect," which was called the
"consolation." If one of the perfect ate the least morsel of meat or
cheese or egg, he sinned mortally, and all who had been consoled by him
fell at the same time out of a state of grace, and it was necessary
for them to be re-consoled; and even those who were saved fell out of
heaven for the sins of him who had consoled them. The sacrament of
consolation was performed by one of the "perfect" laying his hands
upon one of the "believers," who repeated a Pater Noster; and such act
placed the "believer" in a state of grace from which he could only fall
by the fall of his consoler. This ceremony was performed at the point
of death.