“The whole point of Catharism was their conception that Christianity is a life lived,
not a doctrine believed in.”
Walter Birks & R. A. Gilbert: The Treasure of Montsegur
The Cathars were probably the most serious threat to the Catholic Church’s hold over people’s faith during the Middle Ages. Their spiritual movement stretched from the Languedoc region of southern France, across Italy and eastwards to their original homeland, Bulgaria, where they were known as Bogomils as we see in the map below.
In some areas they were effectively replacing the official Church. The Catholic Count of Toulouse, Raymond V, writing to the local Cistercian Order of monks, complained that churches had fallen into disrepair and their services were often suspended. In addition:
“Few still believe in the Creation or the Resurrection; the sacraments are despised and the religion of the two principles (Catharism) has everywhere established its hold.”
For nearly two hundred years the Cathars won significant popular support from peasants and nobles alike. In their southern French heartland, it took a century of brutal military campaigns – including the Albigensian Crusade – together with the Inquisition and the sustained weight of the law to finally extinguish the movement.
So what was it about the Cathar message that was so potent and does it have any relevance today?
What was the Cathar Mission?
If you open almost any history book on the Cathars, it will begin by telling you, like Raymond V did, that they were Dualists, that is, people who believed in two gods, one good, one evil. Aside from the fact that is not entirely accurate, it distorts the fundamental truth of their mission because it seeks to define them purely in terms of their doctrine. This is no accident: the Church’s response to movements they deemed ‘heretical’ was usually to attack them on grounds of dogma. Had they sought to criticise the actual practice of their faith, they would have been on very shaky ground indeed. In contrast to the Church with its reputation for greed and moral corruption, the Cathars lived lives of simplicity, humility and poverty, following the example of Jesus and his Apostles. The Catholic Saint Bernard of Clairvaux himself admitted:
“If you interrogate them, no one could be more Christian. As to their conversation, nothing can be less reprehensible, and what they speak they prove by deeds. As for the morals of the heretics, they cheat no one, they oppress no one, they strike no one.”
And it is this code of conduct, not any doctrine – real or imagined – that holds the key to their relevance today. People followed them then because they were living examples of their teaching – and we can do the same.
The Cathars and Us
The Cathars were trying to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. That was the heart of their mission. There were not alone: other ‘heretical’ groups, even reform movements within the Church itself, sensed the need to return to the path that Christ had set out for humanity all those centuries ago. St Francis, a contemporary of the Cathars, was clearly inspired by the same light, as we discuss in our blog St Francis and the Cathars.
So do we simply imitate what the Cathars did all those years ago? The spiritual teacher Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov pointed out that a snake has to shed its skin at intervals and spiritual movements need to do the same. A new era calls for new forms to contain the ancient truths. Life continues with the snake, not the discarded skin. So rather than indulge in spiritual cosplay to follow the Cathar life in all its medieval details, we can be inspired by their selflessness, courage and dedication to living a life based on Jesus’s example.
The Cathars acted according to their consciousness which was lodged firmly in the Middle Ages. Though some of their beliefs and practices were radical for the time, like having women priests (‘parfaites’), they lived a very austere life that few would wish to follow nowadays - or indeed need to - in order to embrace a spiritual life based on Jesus’ mission. We can live simple lives, free of the clutter of excessive materialism and focused on our spiritual goals, without going to medieval extremes.
We can also build on their work. Catharism gave women a spiritual voice for the first time in centuries but the deep-seated patriarchy of the age limited their equality in practice. Estimates suggest that only about a third of the Cathar priesthood were women and most of the preaching was done by men. A millennium on, we can assert womankind’s spiritual role fully. The principle remains the same but the practice evolves.
There is also much evidence – not least from the Inquisition – that the Cathars did a lot of good in the world in terms of healing, teaching and caring for the elderly and sick, as well as working in local communities, notably as weavers. Yet they held a fundamentally negative view the material world. They believed it was a lower plane of existence into which they had been cast down as a result of being seduced as angels by Satan. Initiated Cathars – parfaits – hoped that at the end their lives they would finally be free of the cycle of reincarnation, and thus of this planet, for good. While we can recognise their truth that the world in which we live is indeed far from the heavenly realms, we can choose to engage constructively with it and seek to bring it closer towards our vision of Paradise.
Where are the Cathars now?
And what of all those souls that belonged to the now departed Cathars? In the early 20th century a new spiritual movement started in Bulgaria – the original medieval Cathar homeland – by a spiritual teacher Peter Deunov. It grew and spread, with one of his disciples travelling to France where it put down roots, like the Cathars did a thousand years ago. Peter Deunov said that many of those now joining his movement were reincarnated souls of former Bogomils and Cathars, coming to complete and develop the spiritual work started but suppressed in the Middle Ages.
And maybe some of them are reading this article.
By Simenon Honoré
The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of Spirit of the Rainbow as a whole.
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