Digital Continent Digital Continent Easter 2017 | Page 25

This heresy so deeply entrenched in the Lanquedoc included many influential feudal
lords, knights, guild members as well as the peasantry. They were respected members of society,
and not belonging to the sect could and would exclude citizens from everyday societal
interactions. 58 The leaders of the heresy, the perfected, were well versed, stating their case
persuasively as they lived what they preached. They were ascetic, they fasted and wore clothing
of no significance, while the largely illiterate, uninformed, often times extravagant priesthood
where unable to defend the truths of the Church. 59 Saint Bernard who traveled and preached in
the Lanquedoc wrote:
The churches are without priests; priests no longer receive proper respect;
Christians deny Christ, and their temples pass for synagogues. They belittle the
holiness of the sanctuary of God, and the Sacraments are no longer regarded as
sacred. Feast Days pass without any solemnity; men die in their sins, and their
souls are borne before the awe-inspiring tribunal without having been reconciled
with God through the Sacrament of Penance, and without being fortified by Holy
Viaticum. Children of Christians no longer know Christ and are not able anymore
to walk in the way of salvation. 60
58
Joseph Clayton, Pope Innocent III and His Times, (WI: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1941), 132.
Ibid.,134.
60
Albert Shannon, O.S.A., The Medieval Inquisition, (MN: Liturgical Press, 1984), 41.
59