HISTORY WESTERN CIVILIZATION

Heresy

Carcassone

Waldensians: ~ late 1100s  Followers of Peter Waldo,

Lyon, France  sought to emulate Christ

through piety and poverty  taught the Gospels in

vernacular though not official priest or members of clergy

 attacked immorality of the clergy

 condemned as heretics, though some survived in northern Italy

Cathar Doctrine

 Duality The fight between two equals Good and Evil As set down in St.John':s Gospel Good being the kingdom of the good lord Evil being the material and time passing reality of the visible physical world.

They invoke with their own interpretation and according to their abilities the authority of the Gospels and the Epistles against the condition of the prelates, churchmen, and monks, whom they call Pharisees and false prophets, who say, but do no.

Cathar Heresy

Catharism: early 1200s  Believed in ‘Manichaeism’, two

gods, one good, the other evil  god of the Old Testament the

evil one, who created an evil, earthly home

 believed in sexual abstinence, as the body was what trapped the soul in the evil earth; also avoided products derived from sexual activity

 Christ, not God, but an angel as he could not be flesh

 strong in south France, until destroyed by Crusade 1208-29, led by Simon DeMontfort

Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226)  Grassroots appeal to

the poor  respected authority

of church and the sacraments

 tended to oppose formal education

 eventually given right to hear confession

 often involved in missionary work

Dominicans  Founded by St.

Dominic, (c. 1170- 1221)

 valued education as a means of combating heresy

 involved in Cathar debates

 became chief operators of the Inquisition