Synopsis
ALBIGENSES, a sect which from the
beginning of the eleventh century spread rapidly and widely in Southern France,
and maintained itself there till the middle of the thirteenth century; received
its name from the city of Albi, Latin Albiga, the present capital of the
department of Tarn, which was one of their principal seats. The name does not
occur, however, until the time of the Albigensian crusade. Before that time the
sect was spoken of as the Poblicants, or Publicani, probably a
corruption of the name of the Paulicians, which the crusaders had brought back
to Western Europe, or as the Bos Homes, Latin, Boni Homines,
French, Bons Hommes, which name they themselves gave to those among them
who reached the highest state of perfection, the perfecti.
Of the doctrines of the Albigenses nothing
is known with certainty. They have left no writings, confessional,
apologetical, or polemical; and the representations which Roman-Catholic
writers, their bitter enemies, have given of them, are highly exaggerated. It
is evident, however, that they formed a branch of that broad stream of
sectarianism and heresy which arose far away in Asia from the contact between
Christianity and the Oriental religions, and which, by crossing the Balkan
Peninsula, reached Western Europe. The first outflow from this source were the
Manichaeans, the next the Paulicians, the next the Cathari, who in the tenth
and eleventh centuries were very strong in Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Dalmatia. Of
the Cathari, the Bogomiles, Patoreni, Albigenses,
etc., were only individual developmepts. In general they all held the same
doctrines, dualism, docetism, etc.; the same moral tenets, an austere
simplicity bordering on asceticism; the same organization, a division into two
classes of credentes, or auditores, and perfecti; and the
same policy, opposition to the Roman-Catholic Church. See the article
CATHARI.
From Italy the movement reached Southern
France in the beginning of the eleventh century; and here the soil was
wonderfully well prepared for the new seed. The country was rich, flourishing,
and independent; the people, gay, intellectual, and progressing; the Church,
dull, stupid, and tyrannous; and the clergy, distinguished by nothing but
superstition, ignorance, arbitrariness, violence, and vice. Under such
circumstances the idea of a return to the purity and simplicity of the
apostolical age could not fail to attract attention. The severe immoral demands
made impression, because the example of the preachers corresponded to their
words. The doctrine of an absolute and original dualism naturally recommends
itself to the understanding as the easiest solution of many a knotty problem.
No wonder, then, that the people deserted the Roman-Catholic priests, and
crowded around the Bos Homes. In a short time the Albigenses had
congregations, with schools and charitable institutions of their own. Then they
drove away the Roman-Catholic priests from the churches, took possession of the
buildings, and elected their own priests and bishops. Finally the lords of the
laud, the great barons and counts, openly placed themselves at the head of the
movement; and in 1167 the Albigenses held an Albigensian synod at Toulouse for
the purpose of perfecting their organization. The Roman-Catholic Church, so far
as it still could be said to exist in the country, had become an object of
contempt and derision.
This state of affairs caused, of course,
great alarm in Rome. As early as 1119 a council was convened at Toulouse; and
the tenets of the Cathari, such as preached by the Bos Homes, were
condemned. From time to time the condemnation was repeated by the councils of
the Lateran (1139), of Rheims (1148), of Tours
(1163), etc., but without any effect. Missions were sent out among the
heretics. In 1147 St. Bernard of Clairveaux visited
them; and his preaching was probably not altogether lost. In 1165 a disputation
between the orthodox and the heretical bishops and priests was held at Lombers,
near Albi; but no result was arrived at. In 1178 Cardinal Peter, with a great
retinue of prelates and monks, tried, for the last time, persuasion; and in
1180 Cardinal Henry, for the first time, employed force. He preached a crusade
against the Albigensian heretics. Troops were drawn together; some strong
places were carried with the usual accompaniment of massacre and carnage; and
then the case was again allowed to drag along, until at last
Innocent III. succeeded in finishing it by
employing measures which he is said to have repented bitterly of himself. In
1208 the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, was murdered; and the murder was
ascribed to Count Raymond of Toulouse. A new crusade was preached, to be led by
Arnold, Abbot of Citeaux, as papal legate, and Simon of Montfort, Earl of
Leicester, as military chief; and behind this line stood time French king
waiting for an opportunity to rob Count Raymond of his beautiful lands. The
count humiliated himself as much as he possibly could: he paid a large sum into
the papal treasury, was flagellated by the papal legate, and then took the
cross against his own subjects. The first place which was taken was Beziers, a
city of between twenty thousand and forty thousand inhabitants, and the capital
of Count Roger, Rayniond’s nephew, who had openly espoused the cause of
the heretics. When the general asked what to do with the inhabitants of the
captured city, the papal legate answered, "Kill them all! God will know his
own." In this manner the war was carried on for twenty years. Town after town
was taken, pillaged, and burnt; of the inhabitants, the orthodox were chained
together, and sent to the Mohammedan1
slave-markets, while the heretics were massacred and burnt. Nothing was left
but a smoking waste. But, as the war went on, its purpose changed. Religious
fanaticism had begun it: rapacity and ambition were going to end it. When
Raymond was ready to hand over all his movable property to the pope, and all
his land to the French king, peace was concluded in 1229; and, in order to
purge the population, the Inquisition was
established in Languedoc, and soon extinguished the sect.
1 An
inaccurate, offensive and obsolete name for Muslims. It should not be used by
modern writers.
C. Schmidt, "Albigenses," Philip Schaff, ed.,
A Religious Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal,
and Practical Theology, 3rd edn, Vol. 1. Toronto, New York & London:
Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1894. pp.46-47. Footnote mine
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Peter of les
Vaux de Carney, The History of the Albigensian Crusade, W.A. & M.D.
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 Malcolm Barber, The Cathars: Dualist Heretics in
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G.W. Davies,
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 James B. Given, Inquisition
and Medieval Society: Power, Discipline, and Resistance in Languedoc.
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Bernard
Hamilton, The Albigensian Crusade. London: Historical Association, 1974.
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 Thomas F. Madden, A Concise
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John
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M.G. Pegg,
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Andrew P.
Roach, "Penance and the Making of the Inquisition in Languedoc," Journal of
Ecclesiastical History 52.3 (2001): 409-433. |
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 Steven Runciman, The
Medieval Manichee: A Study of the Christian Dualist Heresy. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1982. Pbk. ISBN: 0521289262. pp.224. {Amazon.com} {Read Review} |
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 Joseph R. Strayer, The
Albigensian Crusades. University of Michigan Press, 1992. Pbk. ISBN:
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Jonathan
P.C. Sumption, The Albigensian Crusade. London: Faber & Faber, 1978.
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Walter
Leggett Wakefield, "The Family of Niort in the Albigensian Crusade and before
the inquisition," Names 18 (1970): 97-117, 286-303. |
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Walter
Leggett Wakefield, Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Southern France
1100-1250. University of California Press, 1974. Hbk. ISBN: 0520023803.
{Amazon.com} |
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H.J. Warner,
The Albigensian Heresy. New York: Russell and Russell, 1967. |
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