Digital Continent Digital Continent Easter 2017 | Page 14

During the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries the devastating heresy Albigensianism,
an “allied branch of Catharism” 15 formed and spread throughout Europe, most notably in the
south of France named after the town of Albi where the heresy was deeply rooted. 16 The Cathar,
in Greek Katharoi, or “the pure one” heresy developed, some believe, in the east in Bulgaria by a
“sect known as the Bogomils,” the name coming from its founder who was a priest that “taught a
life of repentance, prayer, and simple worship was the way of escape from a wicked world that
was under rule of the prince of darkness.” 17 A heresy of dualism, where matter was evil deriving
from the evil one while spirit, which differs from the holy Spirit, was good coming from God.
Theology of Cathar centers in the belief that “one god, the good god in heaven, is spiritual and
created all spiritual beings including man’s soul. The other god is evil, and he created all material
15
Jennifer Moorcroft, The Hidden Light: A Life of Saint Dominic, (IN: AuthorHouse, 2013), 10.
Joseph Clayton, Pope Innocent III and His Times. (WI: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1941), 129.
17
Walter Wakefield, Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Southern France, 1100-1250, (CA: University of California
Press, 1974), 26.
16