[1] For details of this and other Hindu systems see H. T. Colebrooke,
_Miscellaneous Essays_ (1837; new ed., E. B. Cowell, 1873); H. H.
Wilson, _Essays and Lectures on the Religions of the Hindus_
(1861-1862); Monier Williams, _Indian Wisdom_ (4th ed., 1893); A. E.
Gough's _Vaiseshika-Sutras_ (Benares, 1873), and _Philosophy of the
Upanishads_ (London, 1882, 1891); Max Muller, _Sanskrit Literature_,
and particularly his appendix to Thomson's _Laws of Thought_.
[2] The supposed origin of that theory in the treatise [Greek: perhi
tou pantos], ascribed to Archytas (q.v.), has been proved to be an
error. The treatise itself dates in all probability from the
Neo-Pythagorean schools of the 2nd century A.D.
[3] Prantl, _Ges. der Logik_, i. 74-75; F.A. Trendelenburg,
_Kategorienlehre_, 209. n.
[4] _Soph_. 254 D.
[5] Against this passage even Prantl can raise no objection of any
moment; see _Ges. der Logik_, i. 206. n.
[6] See Bonitz, _Iridex Aristotelicus_, s.v., and Prantl, _Ges. der
Logik_, i. 207.
[7] Brentano, _Bedeutung des Seienden nach A._, pp. 148-178.
[8] For detailed examination of the Stoic categories, see Prantl,
_Ges. d. Logik_, i. 428 sqq.; Zeller, _Ph. d. Griech._ iii. 1, 82,
sqq,; Trendelenburg, _Kateg._ p. 217.
[9] It does not seem necessary to do more than refer to the slight
alterations made on Kant's Table of Categories by J.G. von Herder (in
the _Metakritik_), by Solomon Malmon (in the _Propadeutik zu einer
neuen Theorie des Denkens_), by J.F. Fries (in the _Neue Kritik der
Vernunft_), or by Schopenhauer, who desired to reduce all the
categories to one--that of Causality. We should require a new
philosophical vocabulary even to translate the extraordinary
compounds in which K.C.F. Krause expounds his theory of the
categories. Notices of the changes introduced by Antonio
Rosmini-Serbati, and of Vincenzo Gioberti's remarkable theory, will
be found in Ragnisco's work referred to below.
[10] _System der Metaphysik_ (1844).
[11] _Logische Untersuchungen_, i. 376-377.
[12] _Essais de critique generale_ (2nd ed.), _La Logique_, i. pp.
184, 190, 207-225.
[13] _Discussions_, p. 577.
[14] _Logic_, i. 83; cf. Bain, _Ded. Log._, App. C.
CATENARY (from Lat. _catena_, a chain), in mathematics, the curve
assumed by a uniform chain or string hanging freely between two
supports. It was investigated by Galileo, who erroneously determined it
to be a parabola; Jungius detected Galileo's error, but the true form
was not discovered until 1691, when James Bernoulli published it as a
problem in the _Acta Eruditorum_. Bernoulli also considered the cases
when (1) the chain was of variable density, (2) extensible, (3) acted
upon at each point by a force directed to a fixed centre. These curves
attracted much attention and were discussed by John Bernoulli, Leibnitz,
Huygens, David Gregory and others.
The mechanical properties of the curves are treated in the article
MECHANICS, where various forms are illustrated. The simple catenary is
shown in the figure. The cartesian equation referred to the axis and
directrix is y = c cosh (x/c) or y = 1/2c[e^(x/c) + e^(-x/c)]; other
forms are s = c sinh (x/c) and y^2 = c^2 + s^2, s being the arc
measured from the vertex; the intrinsic equation is s = c tan [psi].
The radius of curvature and normal are each equal to c sec^2 [psi].
[Illustration]
The surface formed by revolving the catenary about its directrix is
named the _alysseide_. It is a minimal surface, i.e. the catenary
solves the problem: to find a curve joining two given points, which
when revolved about a line co-planar with the points traces a surface
of minimum area (see VARIATIONS, CALCULUS OF).
The involute of the catenary is called the _tractory_, _tractrix_ or
_antifriction_ curve; it has a cusp at the vertex of the catenary, and
is asymptotic to the directrix. The cartesian equation is
_ _
| c - [root](c^2 - y^2) |
x = [root](c^2 - y^2) + 1/2c log |-----------------------|
|_c + [root](c^2 + y^2)_|
and the curve has the geometrical property that the length of its
tangent is constant. It is named the tractory, since a weight placed
on the ground and drawn along by means of a flexible string by a
person travelling in a straight line, the weight not being in this
line, describes the curve in question. It is named the antifriction
curve, since a pivot and step having the form of the surface generated
by revolving the curve about its vertical axis wear away equally (see
MECHANICS: _Applied_).
CATERAN (from the Gaelic _ceathairne_, a collective word meaning
"peasantry"), the band of fighting men of a Highland clan; hence the
term is applied to the Highland, and later to any, marauders or
cattle-lifters.
CATERHAM, an urban district in the Wimbledon parliamentary division of
Surrey, England, 20 m. S. of London by the South-Eastern & Chatham
railway. Pop. (1901) 9486. It lies in a healthy, hilly district, and has
grown in modern times from a village into a large residential town.
There are large barracks in the neighbourhood, and the Metropolitan
lunatic asylum is close to the town.
CATERPILLAR, the popular name of the larva of various insects,
particularly of butterflies and moths (see LEPIDOPTERA, HEXAPODA,
METAMORPHOSIS). The word appears first in the form _caterpyl_
(_Promptorium Parvulorum_, about the middle of the 15th century). This
may be the original form, with the addition of -ar or -er; if so, it
represents the O. Fr. _chatepelose_ or _chatepeleuse_, i.e. "hairy-cat"
(_chat_, cat, and _pelouse_, hairy, Lat. _pilosus_), a name applied to
the hairy caterpillar, and also according to Cotgrave to a weevil. The
use of "cat" in this connexion is paralleled by the Swiss name for a
caterpillar, _teufelskatz_, and the popular English name for the blossom
of the willow, "catkin," somewhat resembling a caterpillar (cf.
"palmer"); the modern French is _chenille_, Latin _canicula_, a little
dog. The termination of the word seems to have been early connected with
"piller," a robber, plunderer from the destructive habits of the larva,
cf. Joel i. 4--"That which the palmer-worm hath left, hath the locust
eaten." The spelling "caterpillar," a 17th century corruption, has been
the usual form since Johnson.
CATESBY, ROBERT (1573-1605), English conspirator, son of Sir William
Catesby of Lapworth in Warwickshire, a prominent recusant who was a
descendant of Sir William Catesby, speaker of the House of Commons in
1484, executed by Henry VII. after the battle of Bosworth, was born in
1573, and entered Gloucester Hall (now Worcester College), Oxford, in
1586. He possessed a considerable estate, and was said to be wild and
extravagant in his youth. In 1596 he was one of those arrested on
suspicion during an illness of Queen Elizabeth. In 1601 he took part in
the rebellion of Essex, was wounded in the fight and imprisoned, but
finally pardoned on the payment of an enormous fine, to obtain which he
was forced to sell a portion of his property. In 1602 he despatched
Thomas Winter and the Jesuit Tesimond _alias_ Greenway to Spain to
induce Philip III. to organize an invasion of England, and in 1603,
after James's accession, he was named as an accomplice in the "Bye
Plot." Catesby was a man of great beauty of person, "above 2 yards
high," says Father Gerard, "and though slender, yet as well-proportioned
to his height as any man one should see." He possessed a clear head and
unflinching courage, and with a strong determination and fascinating
manner mastered the minds of his associates and overpowered all
opposition. He was, however, headstrong, wilful and imprudent, fit for
action, but incapable of due deliberation, and entirely wanting in
foresight. Exasperated by his personal misfortunes and at the repressive
measures under which his co-religionists were suffering, and blinded by
a religious zeal which amounted to fanaticism, he was now to be the
chief instigator of the famous Gunpowder Plot, which must in any event
have brought disaster upon the Roman Catholic cause. The idea of some
great stroke seems to have first entered his mind in May 1603. About the
middle of January 1604 he imparted his scheme of blowing up the
Parliament House to his cousin Thomas Winter, subsequently taking in Guy
Fawkes and several other conspirators and overcoming all fears and
scruples. But it was his determination, from which he would not be
shaken, not to allow warning to be given to the Roman Catholic peers
that was the actual cause of the failure of the plot. A fatal mistake
had been made in imparting the secret to Francis Tresham (q.v.), in
order to secure his financial assistance; and there is scarcely any
doubt that he was the author of the celebrated letter to his
brother-in-law, Lord Monteagle, which betrayed the conspiracy to the
government, on the 26th of October. On receiving the news of the letter
on the 28th, Catesby exhibited extraordinary coolness and fortitude, and
refused to abandon the attempt, hoping that the government might despise
the warning and still neglect precautions; and his confidence was
strengthened by Fawkes's report that nothing in the cellar had been
touched or tampered with. On the 2nd of November his resolution was
shaken by Tresham's renewed entreaties that he would flee, and his
positive assurance that Salisbury knew everything. On the evening of the
3rd, however, he was again, through Percy's insistence, persuaded to
stand firm and hazard the great stroke. The rest of the story is told in
the article GUNPOWDER PLOT. Here it need only be said that Catesby,
after the discovery of the conspiracy, fled with his fellow-plotters,
taking refuge ultimately at Holbeche in Staffordshire, where on the
night of the 8th of November he was overtaken and killed. He had married
Catherine, daughter of Thomas Leigh of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, and
left one son, Robert, who inherited that part of the family estate which
had been settled on Catesby's mother and was untouched by the attainder,
and who is said to have married a daughter of Thomas Percy.
CAT-FISH, the name usually applied to the fishes of the family
_Siluridae_, in allusion to the long barbels or feelers about the mouth,
which have been compared to the whiskers of a cat. The _Siluridae_ are a
large and varied group, mostly inhabitants of fresh waters; some of them
by their singular form and armature are suggestive of the Devonian
mailed fishes, and were placed at one time in their vicinity by L.
Agassiz. Even such authorities as T.H. Huxley and E.D. Cope were
inclined to ascribe ganoid affinities to the _Siluridae_; but this view
has gradually lost ground, and most modern ichthyologists, if not all,
have adopted the conclusions of M. Sagemehl, who has placed the
_Siluridae_ near the carps and Characinids in the group Ostariophysi.
The Silurids and Cyprinids may be regarded as two parallel series
derived from some common stock which cannot have been very different
from the existing Characinids. In spite of the archaic appearance of
some of its members, the family _Siluridae_ does not appear to extend
far back in time, its oldest known representative being the _Bucklandium
diluvii_ of the Lower Eocene (London Clay) of Sheppey. A great number of
forms were placed by Cuvier and his successors in the family
_Siluridae_, which has since been broken up by T. Gill and other
American authors into several families, united under the name of
Nematognathi. A middle course appears the more reasonable to the
present writer, who has divided the _Siluridae_ of Cuvier into three
families, with the following definitions:--
_Siluridae_--ribs attached to strong parapophyses; operculum well
developed.
_Loricariidae_--ribs sessile; parapophyses absent; operculum more or
less developed.
_Aspredinidae_--ribs sessile; strong parapophyses; operculum absent.
These three families may be defined among the Ostariophysi by having the
parietal bones fused with the supraoccipital, no symplectic, the body
naked or with bony scutes, the mouth usually toothed, with barbels, and
usually an adipose dorsal fin.
The _Siluridae_ embrace more than one thousand species, spread over the
fresh waters of all parts of the world, but mostly from between the
tropics. They are absent from western Europe and north-west Africa, and
from North America west of the Rocky Mountains, but this deficiency has
been made good by now, the introduction of _Amiurus nebulosus_ and
allied species in various parts of continental Europe and California
having proved a success. Only a few forms are marine (_Plotosus_,
_Arius_, _Galeichthys_).
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--The "Wels" (_Silurus glanis_).]
The species which has given the name to the whole family is the "Wels"
of the Germans, _Silurus glanis_, the largest European fresh-water fish,
inhabiting the greater part of Europe from the Rhine eastwards and north
of the Alps. Its head is large and broad, its mouth wide, furnished with
six barbels, of which those of the upper jaw are very long. Both jaws
and the palate are armed with broad bands of small closely-set teeth,
which give the bones a rasp-like appearance. The eyes are exceedingly
small. The short body terminates in a long, compressed, muscular tail,
and the whole fish is covered with a smooth, scaleless, slippery skin.
Specimens of 4 and 5 ft. in length, and of 50 to 80 lb. in weight, are
of common occurrence, and the fish grows to 10 ft., with a weight of 400
lb., in the Danube. Its food consists chiefly of other bottom-feeding
fishes, and in inland countries it is considered one of the better class
of food fishes. Stories about children having been found in the stomach
of very large individuals are probably inventions. An allied species
(_S. aristotelis_) is found in Greece.
The _Clarias_ and _Heterobranchus_ of Africa and south-eastern Asia have
an elongate, more or less eel-shaped body, with long dorsal and anal
fins, and are known to be able to live a long time out of water, being
provided with an accessory dendritic breathing organ situated above the
gills. Some species live in burrows during the dry season, crawling
about at night in search of food. The common Nile species, the "Harmoot"
(_Clarias lazera_), occurs abundantly in the Lake of Galilee and was
included in, if not chiefly aimed at, by the Mosaic law which forbade
the Jews to eat scaleless fishes, a prohibition which has been extended
to eels in spite of the obvious presence of minute scales in the latter.
The _Saccobranchus_ of India and Ceylon, a genus more nearly related to
_Silurus_, have also an accessory organ for breathing atmospheric air.
It consists of a long sac behind the gill-cavity, extending far back on
each side of the body under the muscles.
In the majority of the _Siluridae_, called by A. Gunther the
_Proteropterae_, a section extremely numerous in species, and
represented throughout the tropics, the dorsal fin consists of a
short-rayed and an adipose portion, the former belonging to the
abdominal vertebral column; the anal is always much shorter than the
tail. The gill-membranes are not confluent with the skin of the isthmus;
they have a free posterior margin. When a nasal barbel is present, it
belongs to the posterior nostril. This section includes among many
others the genus _Bagrus_, of which the bayad (_B. bayad_) and docmac
(_B. docmac_) frequently come under the notice of travellers on the
Nile; they grow to a length of 5 ft. and are eaten.
Of the "cat-fishes" of North America (_Amiurus_), locally called
"bull-heads" or "horned-pouts," with eight barbels, some twenty species
are known. Some of them are valued as food, especially one which is
abundant in the ponds of New England, and capable of easy introduction
into other localities (_A. nebulosus_). Others which inhabit the great
lakes (_A. nigricans_) and the Mississippi (_A. ponderosus_) often
exceed the weight of 100 lb. _Platystoma_ and _Pimelodus_ people the
rivers and lakes of tropical America, and many of them are conspicuous
in this fauna by the ornamentation of their body, by long spatulate
snouts, and by their great size.
The genus _Arius_ is composed of a great number of species and has the
widest distribution of all Silurids, being represented in almost all
tropical countries which are drained by large rivers. Most of the
species live in salt water. They possess six barbels, and their head is
extensively osseous on its upper surface; their dorsal and pectoral
spines are generally developed into powerful weapons. _Bagarius_, one of
the largest Silurids of the rivers of India and Java, exceeding a length
of 6 ft., differs from _Arius_ in having eight barbels and the head
covered with skin.
R. Semon has made observations in Queensland on the habits of _Arius
australis_, which builds nests in the sandy bed of the Burnett river.
These nests consist of circular basin-like excavations about 20 in. in
diameter, at the bottom of which the eggs are laid and covered over by
several layers of large stones. In the marine and estuarine species of
_Arius, Galcichthys_ and _Osteogeniosus_, the male, more rarely the
female, carries the eggs in the mouth and pharynx; these eggs, few in
number, are remarkably large, measuring as much as 17 or 18 millimetres
in diameter in _Arius commusonii_, a fish 3 or 4 ft. in length.
The common North American _Amiurus nebulosus_ also takes care of its
eggs, which are deposited beneath protecting objects at the bottom of
the water, failing which both parents join in excavating a sort of nest
in the mud. The male watches over the eggs, and later leads the young in
great schools near the shore, seemingly caring for them as the hen for
her chickens.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--_Synodonus xiphias_.]
In the _Siluridae Stenobranchiae_ of Gunther the dorsal fin consists of
an adipose portion and a short-rayed fin which belongs to the abdominal
vertebral column, and, like the adipose fin, may be sometimes absent.
The gill-membranes are confluent with the skin of the isthmus. The
Silurids belonging to this section are either South American or African.
Among the former we notice specially the genus _Doras_, which is
distinguished by having a series of bony scutes along the middle of the
side. The narrowness of their gill-openings appears to have developed in
them a habit which has excited the attention of all naturalists who have
visited the countries bordering upon the Atlantic rivers of tropical
America, viz. the habit of travelling during seasons of drought from a
piece of water about to dry up to ponds of greater capacity. These
journeys are occasionally of such a length that the fish have to travel
all night; they are so numerous that the Indians fill many baskets of
them. J. Hancock supposes that the fish carry a small supply of water
with them in their gill-cavity, which they can easily retain by closing
their branchial apertures. The same naturalist adds that they make
regular nests, in which they cover up their eggs with care and defend
them--male and female uniting in this parental duty until the eggs are
hatched. _Synodontis_ is an African genus and common in the Nile, where
the various species are known by the name of "Shal." They frequently
occur among the representations of animals left by the ancient
Egyptians. The upper part of their head is protected by strong osseous
scutes, and both the dorsal and pectoral fins are armed with powerful
spines. Their mouth is small, surrounded by six barbels, which are more
or less fringed with a membrane or with branched tentacles.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--_-Malopterurus electricus_.]
The curious fact of some species of _Synodontis_ having the lower parts
darker than the upper, some being whitish above and blackish beneath,
appears to be connected with their habit of swimming in a reversed
position, the Belly turned upwards. This habit, known to the ancient
Egyptians, who have frequently represented them in that attitude, has
been described by E. Geoffrey, who says they nearly constantly swim on
their back, moving quite freely forwards and sidewards; but if alarmed,
they revert to the normal position to escape more rapidly.
The electric cat- or sheath-fishes (_Malopterurus_) have been referred
to the same section. Externally they are at once recognized by the
absence of a rayed dorsal fin, of which only a rudiment remains as a
small interneural spine concealed below the skin. The entire fish is
covered with soft, villose skin, an osseous defensive armour having
become unnecessary in consequence of the development of a powerful
electric apparatus, the strength of which, however, is exceeded by that
of the electric eel and the large species of _Torpedo_.
The electric organ of _Malopterurus_ differs essentially from that of
other fishes provided with such batteries, being part of the tegumentary
system instead of being derived from the muscles. It consists of
rhomboidal cells of a fine gelatinous substance immediately under the
skin. It is put into action by a single ganglionic cell at the anterior
extremity of the spinal cord. Contrary to what takes place in other
electric fishes, the current proceeds from the head to the tail.
The electric cat-fish, which grows to a length of 3 ft. in the Congo,
has a wide distribution in Africa, extending from the Nile to the
Zambezi and from the Senegal to the Congo. It was well known to the
ancient Egyptians, who have depicted it in their mural paintings and
elsewhere, and an account of its electric properties was given by an
Arab physician of the 12th century; then as now the fish was known under
the suggestive name of _Raad_ or _Raash_, which means "thunder."
Gunther's _Siluridae Branchicolae_ comprise the smallest and least
developed members of the family; they are referred to two genera only
from South America, _Stegophilus_ and _Vandellia_, the smallest of which
does not exceed the length of 2 in. Their body is soft, narrow,
cylindrical and elongate; the dorsal and anal fins short; the vent far
behind the middle of the length of the body; gill-membranes confluent
with the skin of the isthmus. Each maxillary is provided with a small
barbel; and the gill-covers are armed with short stiff spines. Their
small size notwithstanding, these Silurids are well known to the
Brazilians, who accuse them of entering and ascending the urethra of
persons while bathing, causing inflammation and sometimes death. Some
certainly live parasitically in the gill-cavity of large Silurids, and
F. Silvestri has observed _Stegophilus insidiosus_ to suck the blood in
the gills of _Platystoma coruscans_, a Silurid growing to a length of 6
ft.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--_Callichthys armatus_, from the upper Amazons.]
The mailed cat-fish of the South American genus _Callichthys_ builds
regular nests of grass on leaves, sometimes placed in a hole scooped out
in the bank, in which they cover their eggs and defend them, male and
female sharing in this parental duty. In the allied _Corydoras_ a
lengthy courtship takes place, followed by an embrace, during which the
female receives the seminal fluid in a sort of pouch formed by the
folded membranes of her ventral fins; immediately after, five or six
eggs are produced and received in the pouch, to be afterwards carefully
placed in a secluded spot. This operation is repeated many times, until
the total number of eggs, about 250, have been deposited. In accordance
with these pairing habits, the pectoral spines of the male, which are
used in amplexation, are larger and stronger than those of the female.
These fish are monogamous, and both parents remain by the side of the
nest, furiously attacking any assailant.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--_Loricaria lanceolata_, from the upper Amazons.]
The allied family _Loricariidae_ is entirely confined to the fresh
waters of Central and South America. C.T. Regan, who has recently
published an elaborate monograph of them, recognizes 189 species,
referred to 17 genera. Many of them are completely mailed; but all have
in common a short-rayed dorsal fin, with the ventrals below or rarely
in front of it. Their gill-openings are reduced to a short slit. The
first group of this section comprises alpine forms of the Andes, without
any armature, and with a very broad and pendent lower lip. They have
been referred to several genera (_Stygogenes, Arges, Brontes,
Astroblepus_), but are collectively called "prenadillas" by th natives,
who state that they live in subterranean craters within the bowels of
the volcanoes of the Andes, and are ejected with streams of mud and
water during eruptions. These fishes may, however, be found in surface
waters at all times, and their appearance in great quantities in the low
country during volcanic eruptions can be accounted for by numbers being
killed by the sulphuretted gases which escape during an eruption and by
their being swept down with the torrents of water issuing from the
volcano. The lowland forms have their body encased in large scutes,
either rough, scale-like, and arranged in four or five series
(_Chaetostomus_), or polished, forming broad rings round the slender and
depressed tail (_Loricaria_, fig. 5). They are mostly of small size.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Abdomen of _Aspredo batrachus_, with the ova
attached; at a the ova are removed, to show the spongy structure of the
skin, and the processes filling the interspaces between the ova.]
In certain of the mailed genera the secondary sexual differences may be
very pronounced, and have given rise to many nominal species. The shape
of the snout may differ according to the sex, and its margin may be
beset with tentacles in the male, whilst it frequently happens that the
head of the latter is margined with spines or bristles which are either
absent or considerably shorter in the female.
The _Aspredinidae_, which are also closely related to the _Siluridae_,
are represented by four genera and eighteen species from South America.
_Aspredo batrachus_ (fig. 6), of the Guianas, the largest form, reaching
to about a foot in length, deserves notice from the manner in which the
female carries her eggs attached to the belly and paired fins, in a
single layer, each egg being connected with the skin by a cup-shaped
pedunculate base supplied with blood-vessels and coated with a layer of
epithelium, the formation of which is still unexplained. (G. A. B.)
CATGUT, the name applied to cord of great toughness and tenacity
prepared from the intestines of sheep, or occasionally from those of the
horse, mule and ass. Those of the cat are not employed, and therefore it
is supposed that the word is properly _kitgut, kit_ meaning "fiddle,"
and that the present form has arisen through confusion with _kit_ = cat.
The substance is used for the strings of harps and violins, as well as
other stringed musical instruments, for hanging the weights of clocks,
for bow-strings, and for suturing wounds in surgery. To prepare it the
intestines are cleaned, freed from fat, and steeped for some time in
water, after which their external membrane is scraped off with a blunt
knife. They are then steeped for some time in an alkaline ley, smoothed
and equalized by drawing out, subjected to the antiseptic action of the
fumes of burning sulphur, if necessary dyed, sorted into sizes, and
twisted together into cords of various numbers of strands according to
their uses. The best strings for musical instruments are imported from
Italy ("Roman strings"); and it is found that lean and ill-fed animals
yield the toughest gut.
CATHA, the _khat_ of the Arabs, a shrub widely distributed and much
cultivated in Arabia and tropical Africa from, Abyssinia to the Cape.
The dried leaves are used for the preparation of a kind of tea and also
as tobacco. The plant is a member of the natural order _Celastraceae_, a
family of shrubs and trees found in temperate and tropical climates and
represented in Britain by the spindle-tree (_Euonymus europaeus_).
CATHARS (CATHARI or CATHARISTS), a widespread heretical sect of the
middle ages. They were the debris of an early Christianity, scattered in
the 10th to 14th centuries over East and West, having their analogues in
the Mahommedan world as well. In the East they were called Bogomils
(q.v.) and Paulicians; in the West, Patarenes, Tixerands (i.e. Weavers),
Bulgars, Concorricii, Albanenses, Albigeois, &c.; in both, Cathars and
Manicheans. This article relates to the Western Cathars, as they appear
(1) in the Cathar Ritual written in Provencal and preserved in a
13th-century MS. in Lyons, published by Cledat, Paris, 1888; (2) in
Bernard Gui's _Practica inquisitionis haereticae pravitatis_, edited by
Canon C. Douais, Paris, 1886; and (3) in the _proces verbal_ of the
inquisitors' reports. Some were downright dualists, and believed that
there are two gods or principles, one of good and the other of evil,
both eternal; but as a rule they subordinated the evil to the good. All
were universalists in so far as they believed in the ultimate salvation
of all men.[1]
Their tenets were as follows:--The evil god, Satan, who inspired the
malevolent parts of the Old Testament, is god and lord of this world, of
the things that are seen and are temporal, and especially of the outward
man which is decaying, of the earthen vessel, of the body of death, of
the flesh which takes us captive under the law of sin and desire. This
world is the only true purgatory and hell, being the antithesis of the
world eternal, of the inward man renewed day by day, of Christ's peace
and kingdom which are not of this world. Men are the result of a primal
war in heaven, when hosts of angels incited by Satan or Lucifer to
revolt were driven out, and were imprisoned in terrestrial bodies
created for them by the adversary. But there are also celestial bodies,
bodies spiritual and not natural. These the angel souls left behind in
heaven, and they are buildings from God, houses not made with hands,
tunics eternal. Imprisoned in the garment of flesh, burdened with its
sin, souls long to be clothed upon with the habitations they left in
heaven. So long as they are at home in the body, they are absent from
the Lord. They would fain be at home with the Lord, and absent from the
body, for which there is no place in heaven since flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God, nor corruption inherit incorruption. There
is no resurrection of the flesh. The true resurrection is the spiritual
baptism bequeathed by Christ to the _boni homines_. How shall man escape
from his prison-house of flesh, and undo the effects of his fall? For
mere death brings no liberation, unless a man is become a new creation,
a new Adam, as Christ was; unless he has received the gift of the spirit
and become a vehicle of the Paraclete. If a man dies unreconciled to God
through Christ, he must pass through another cycle of imprisonment in
flesh; perhaps in a human, but with equal likelihood in an animal's
body. For when after death the powers of the air throng around and,
persecute, the soul flees into the first lodging of clay that it
finds.[2] Christ was a life-giving spirit, and the _boni homines_, the
"good men," as the Cathars called themselves, are his ambassadors. They
alone have kept the spiritual baptism with fire which Christ instituted,
and which has no connexion with the water baptism of John; for the
latter was an unregenerate soul, who failed to recognize the Christ, a
Jew whose mode of baptism with water belongs to the fleeting outward
world and is opposed to the kingdom of God. It would be interesting to
trace Bardesanes and the Syriac Hymn of the Soul in all this.
The Cathars fell into two classes, corresponding to the Baptized and the
Catechumens of the early church, namely, the Perfect, who had been
"consoled," i.e. had received the gift of the Paraclete; and the
_credentes_ or Believers. The Perfect formed the ordained priesthood,
were women no less than men, and controlled the church; they received
from the Believers unquestioning obedience, and as vessels of election
in whom the Holy Spirit already dwelt, they were adored by the faithful,
who were taught to prostrate themselves before them whenever they asked
for their prayers. For none but the Consoled had received into their
hearts the spirit of God's Son, which cries "Abba, Father." They alone
were become adopted sons, and so able to use the Lord's Prayer, which
begins, "Our Father, which art in heaven." The Perfect alone knew God
and could address him in this prayer, the only one they used in their
ceremonies. The mere _credens_ could at best invoke the living saint,
and ask him to pray for him.
All adherents of the sect seem to have kept three Lents in the year, as
also to have fasted Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of each week; in
these fasts a diet of bread and water was usual. But a _credens_ under
probation for initiation, which lasted at least one and often several
years, fasted always. The life of a Perfect was so hard, and, thanks to
the inquisitors, so fraught with danger, that most Believers deferred
the rite until the death-bed, as in the early centuries many believers
deferred baptism. The rule imposed complete chastity. A husband at
initiation left his wife, committing her "to God and the gospel"; a wife
her husband. A male Perfect could not lay his hand on a woman without
incurring penance of a three-days' fast. All begetting of children is
evil, for Adam's chambering with Eve was the forbidden fruit. It is good
for a man not to touch a woman; a man's relations with his own wife are
merely a means of fornication, and marriage and concubinage are
indistinguishable as against the kingdom of God, in which there is no
marrying or giving in marriage. Those only have been redeemed from earth
who were virgins, undefiled with women. The passages of the New
Testament which seem to connive at the married relation were interpreted
by the Cathars as spoken in regard of Christ and the church. The Perfect
must also leave his father and mother, and his children, for a man's
foes are they of his own household. The family must be sacrificed to
the divine kinship. He that loveth father or mother more than Christ is
not worthy of him, nor he that loveth more his son or daughter. The
Perfect takes up his cross and follows after Christ.
Next he must abstain from all flesh diet except fish. He may not even
eat cheese or eggs or milk, for they, like meat, are produced _per viam
generationis seu coitus_. Everything that is sexually begotten is
impure. Fish were supposed to be born in the water without sexual
connexion, and on the basis of this old physiological fallacy the
Cathars equally with the Catholic framed their rule of fasting. And
there was yet another reason why the Perfect should not eat animals, for
a human soul might be doing time in its body. Nor might a Perfect or one
in course of probation kill anything, for the Mosaic commandment applies
to all life. He might not lie nor take an oath, for the precept "Swear
not at all" was, like the rest of the gospel, taken seriously. This was
the chief of their "anarchist doctrines."[3]
The Cathar rites, which remain to us in a manual of the sect, "recall,"
says the Abbe Guiraud, no too favourable a witness, "those of the
primitive church with a truth and precision the more striking the nearer
we go back to the apostolic age." The medieval inquisitor saw in them an
aping of the rites of the Catholic church as he knew them; but they were
really, says the same authority, "archaeological vestiges (i.e.
survivals) of the primitive Christian liturgy. In the bosom of medieval
society they were the last witness to a state of things that the regular
development of Catholic cult had amplified and modified. They resemble
the erratic blocks which lost amid alien soils recall, where we find
them, the geological conditions of earlier ages. This being so, it is of
the deepest interest to study the Cathar cult, since through its rites
we can get a glimpse of those of the primitive church, about which want
of documents leaves us too often in the dark."
The central Cathar rite was _consolamentum_, or baptism with spirit and
fire. The spirit received was the Paraclete derived from God and sent by
Christ, who said, "The Father is greater than I." Of a consubstantial
Trinity the Cathars naturally had never heard. Infant baptism they
rejected because it was unscriptural, and because all baptism with water
was an appanage of the Jewish demiurge Jehovah, and as such expressly
rejected by Christ.
The _consolamentum_ removes original sin, undoes the sad effects of the
primal fall, clothes upon us our habitation which is from heaven,
restores to us the lost tunic of immortality. A Consoled is an angel
walking in the flesh, whom the thin screen of death alone separates from
Christ and the beatific vision. The rite was appointed by Christ, and
has been handed down from generation to generation by the _boni
homines_.
The long probation called "abstinence" which led up to it is a survival
of the primitive catechumenate with its scrutinies. The prostrations of
the _credens_ before the Perfect were in their manner and import
identical with the prostrations of the catechumen before the exorcist.
We find the same custom in the Celtic church of St Columba. Just as at
the third scrutiny the early catechumen passed a last examination in the
Gospels, Creed and Lord's Prayer, so after their year of abstinence the
credens receives creed and prayer; the allocution with which the elder
"handed on" this prayer is preserved, and of it the Abbe Guiraud remarks
that, if it were not in a Cathar ritual, one might believe it to be of
Catholic origin. It is so Christian in tone, he quaintly remarks
elsewhere, that an inquisitor might have used it quite as well as a
heretic. In it the Perfect addresses the postulant, as in the
corresponding Armenian rite, by the name of Peter; and explains to him
from Scripture the indwelling of the spirit in the Perfect, and his
adoption as a son by God. The Lord's Prayer is then repeated by the
postulant after the elder, who explains it clause by clause; the words
_panis superstantialis_ being interpreted not of the material but of
the spiritual bread, which consists of the Words of Life.
There followed the Renunciation, primitive enough in form, but the
postulant solemnly renounced, not Satan and his works and pomp, but the
harlot church of the persecutors, whose prayers were more deadly than
desirable. He renounced the cross which its priests had signed on him
with their chrism, their sham baptisms and other magical rites. Next
followed the spiritual baptism itself, consisting of imposition of
hands, and holding of the Gospel on the postulant's head. The elder
begins a fresh allocution by citing Matt. xxviii. 19, Mark xvi. 15, 16,
John iii. 3 (where the Cathars' text must originally have omitted in v.
5 the words "of water and," since their presence contradicts their
argument). Acts ix. 17, 18, viii. 14-17, are then cited; also John xx.
21-23, Matt. xvi. 18, 19, Matt. xviii. 18-20, for the Perfect one
receives in this rite power to bind and loose. The Perfect's vocation is
then defined: he must not commit adultery nor homicide, nor lie, nor
swear any oath, nor pick and steal, nor do unto another that which he
would not have done unto himself. He shall pardon his wrongdoers, love
his enemies, pray for them that calumniate and accuse him, offer the
other cheek to the smiter, give up his mantle to him that takes his
tunic, neither judge nor condemn. Asked if he will fulfil each of these,
the postulant answers: "I have this will and determination. Pray God for
me that he give me his strength."
The next episode of the rite exactly reproduces the Roman _confiteor_ as
it stood in the 2nd century; "the postulant says: '_Parcite nobis_. For
all the sins I have committed, in word or thought or deed, I come for
pardon to God and to the church and to you all.' And the Christians
shall say: 'By God and by us and by the church may they be pardoned
thee, and we pray God that he pardon you them.'"
There follows the act of "consoling." The elder takes the Gospel off the
white cloth, where it has lain all through the ceremony, and places it
on the postulant's head, and the other good men present place their
right hands on his head; they shall say the _parcias_ (spare), and
thrice the "Let us adore the Father and Son and Holy Spirit," and then
pray thus: "Holy Father, welcome thy servant in thy justice and send
upon him thy grace and thy holy spirit." Then they repeat the "Let us
adore," the Lord's Prayer, and read the Gospel (John i. 1-17).
This was the vital part of the whole rite. The _credens_ is now a
Perfect one. He is girt with the sacred thread round his naked body
under the breasts. Where the fear of the persecutor was absent he was
also clad in a black gown. The Perfect ones present give him the kiss of
peace, and the rite is over. This part of the rite answers partly to the
Catholic confirmation of a baptized person, partly to the ordination of
a pope of Rome or Alexandria. The latter in being ordained had the
Gospel laid on their heads, and the same feature occurs in old Gallican
and Coptic rites of ordaining a bishop.
Thus the Cathar ritual, like that of the Armenian dissenters (see
PAULICIANS), reflects an age when priestly ordination was not yet
differentiated from confirmation. "Is it not curious," says the Abbe
Guiraud, "to remark that the essential rite of the _consolamentum_ is in
effect nothing but the most ancient form of Christian ordination?"
The Cathar Eucharist was equally primitive, and is thus described by a
contemporary writer in a 13th-century MS. of the Milan Library:--"The
Benediction of bread is thus performed by the Cathars. They all, men and
women, go up to a table, and standing up say the 'Our Father.'[4] And he
who is prior among them, at the close of the Lord's Prayer, shall take
hold of the bread and say: 'Thanks be to the God of our Jesus Christ.
May the Spirit be with us all.' And after that he breaks and distributes
to all. And such bread is called bread blessed, although no one believes
that out of it is made the body of Christ. The Albanenses, however,
deny that it can be blessed or sanctified, because it is corporeal"
(i.e. material).
As Tertullian relates of his contemporaries in the 2nd century, so the
Cathars would reserve part of their bread of blessing and keep it for
years, eating of it occasionally though only after saying the
_Benedicite_. The Perfect kept it wrapped up in a bag of pure white
cloth, tied round the neck,[5] and sent it long distances to regions
which through persecution they could not enter. On the death-bed it
could even, like the Catholic _Viaticum_, take the place of the rite of
_Consolamentum_, if this could not be performed. Once a month this
solemn rite of breaking bread was held, the _credentes_ assisting. The
service was called _apparellamentum_, because a table was covered with a
white cloth and the Gospel laid on it. The Perfect were adored, and the
kiss of peace was passed round.
The influence of Catharism on the Catholic church was enormous. To
counteract it celibacy was finally imposed on the clergy, and the great
mendicant orders evolved; while the constant polemic of the Cathar
teachers against the cruelty, rapacity and irascibility of the Jewish
tribal god led the church to prohibit the circulation of the Old
Testament among laymen. The sacrament of "extreme unction" was also
evolved by way of competing with the death-bed _consolamentum_.
AUTHORITIES--J.J.I. Dollinger, _Beitrage zur Sektengeschichte_
(Munchen, 1890); Jean Guiraud, _Questions d'histoire_ (Paris, 1906);
F.C. Conybeare, _The Key of Truth_ (Oxford, 1898); Henry C. Lea,
_History of the Inquisition_ (New York, 1888); C. Douais,
_L'Inquisition_ (Paris, 1906), and his _Les Heretiques du midi au
XIIIe siecle_ (Paris, 1891); _Les Albigeois_ (Paris, 1879); also
_Practica Inquisitionis_ (of Bernard Gui or Guidon), (Paris, 1886); L.
Cledat, _Le Nouveau Testament, traduit au XIIIe siecle en langue
provencale, suivi d'un rituel cathare_ (Paris, 1887); E. Cunitz in
_Beitrage zu den theol. Wissensch._ (1852), vol. iv.; P. van Limborch,
_Liber Sententiarum Inquis. Tholos. 1307-1323_ (Amsterdam, 1692);
Hahn, _Gesch. der Ketzer im M.A._ (Stuttgart, 1845); Ch. Schmidt,
_Histoire et doctrine de la secte des Cathares_ (Paris, 1849); A.
Lombard, _Pauliciens bulgares et Bons-Hommes_ (Geneva, 1879);
Fredericq, _Corpus documentorum haer, pravitatis Neerlandicae_ (Gent,
1889-1896); Felix Tocco, "Nuovi documenti" in _Archiv. di studi ital._
(1901), and his _L'Eresia nel media evo_ (Florence, 1881); P. Flade,
_Das romische Inquisitions-verfahren in Deutschland_ (Leipzig, 1902);
Ch. Molinier, "Rapport sur une mission en Italie," in _Archives
scientifiques de Paris_, tom. 14 (1888); C.H. Haskins, "Robert le
Bougre," in _American Hist. Rev._ (1902). (F. C. C.)