Catharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualistic and gnostic elements that appeared in

the Languedoc region of France and other parts of Europe in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and
13th centuries. Catharism had its roots in the Paulician movement in Armenia and the Bogomils of Bulgaria
with whom the Paulicians merged. They also became influenced by dualist and, perhaps, Manichaean beliefs.

Like many medieval movements, there were various schools of thought and practice amongst the Cathari[citation
needed]
; some were dualistic[clarification needed], others Gnostic[citation needed], some closer to orthodoxy while abstaining
from an acceptance of Catholic doctrines. The dualist theology was the most prominent, however, and was
based upon the complete incompatibility of love and power. As matter was seen as a manifestation of power, it
was also incompatible with love. They did not believe in one all-encompassing god, but in two, both equal and
comparable in status. They held that the physical world was evil and created by Rex Mundi (translated from
Latin as "king of the world"), who encompassed all that was corporeal, chaotic and powerful; the second god,
the one whom they worshipped, was entirely disincarnate: a being or principle of pure spirit and completely
unsullied by the taint of matter. He was the god of love, order and peace.

According to some Cathars, the purpose of man's life on Earth was to transcend matter, perpetually renouncing
anything connected with the principle of power and thereby attained union with the principle of love. According
to others, man's purpose was to reclaim or redeem matter, spiritualizing and transforming it.

This placed them at odds with the Catholic Church in regarding material creation, on behalf of which Jesus had
died, as intrinsically evil and implying that God, whose word had created the world in the beginning, was a
usurper. Furthermore, as the Cathars saw matter as intrinsically evil, they denied that Jesus could become
incarnate and still be the son of God. Cathars vehemently repudiated the significance of the crucifixion and the
cross. In fact, to the Cathars, Rome's opulent and luxurious church seemed a palpable embodiment and
manifestation on Earth of Rex Mundi's sovereignty.

The Catholic Church regarded the sect as dangerously heretical. Faced with the rapid spread of the movement
across the Languedoc region the Church first sought peaceful attempts at conversion, undertaken by
Dominicans. These were not very successful, and after the murder on 15 January 1208 of the papal legate Pierre
de Castelnau by a knight in the employ of Count Raymond of Toulouse, the Church called for a crusade, which
was carried out by knights from Northern France and Germany and was known as the Albigensian Crusade. The
Papal Legate had involved himself in a dispute between the rivals Count of Baux and Count Raymond of
Toulouse, and it is possible that his assassination had little to do with the Cathar heresy. The anti-Cathar
Albigensian Crusade, and the inquisition which followed it, entirely eradicated the Cathars. The Albigensian
Crusade had the effect of greatly weakening the semi-independent southern Principalities such as Toulouse, and
ultimately bringing them under direct control of the King of France.

Xxx

Waldensians, Waldenses or Vaudois are names for a Christian spiritual movement of the later Middle Ages,
descendants of which still exist in various regions. Over time, the denomination joined the Genevan or
Reformed branch of Protestantism. About the earlier history of the Waldenses considerable uncertainty exists
because of a lack of extant source material.[1] They were persecuted as heretical before the 16th century,
endured near annihilation in the 17th century,[2] and were then confronted with organized and generalized
discrimination in centuries that followed.[3][4][5] There are active congregations in Europe, South America, and
North America. The contemporary and historic Waldensian spiritual heritage includes proclaiming the Gospel,
serving the marginalized, promoting social justice, fostering inter-religious work, and advocating respect for
religious diversity and freedom of conscience.[6]

Some researchers argue that the group has existed since the time of the apostles, a claim that is disputed by
modern scholarship.[1] The supporters of the ancient origin claim the Waldenses' name does not in fact come
from Peter Waldo, as modern scholars contend, but from the area in which they lived. [8] They claim Peter
Waldo in fact got his name by association with the Waldenses. This thought was current in the early 19th
century:

"Some Protestants, on this occasion, have fallen into the snare that was set for them...It is absolutely
false, that these churches were ever found by Peter Waldo...it is a pure forgery."[9]
"It is not true, that Waldo gave this name to the inhabitants of the valleys: they were called Waldenses,
or Vaudes, before his time, from the valleys in which they dwelt." [9]
"On the other hand, he "was called Valdus, or Waldo, because he received his religious notions from the
inhabitants of the valleys." [10]

The claim of an ancient origin was for a long time accepted as valid by Protestant historians.[7] The Alexandrine
Nobles Lessons, written in Provençal, was thought at one time to have been composed in 1100, but all scholars
now date it between 1190 and 1240.[11] Other scholars claimed Claudius, Bishop of Turin (died 840),
Berengarius of Tours (died 1088), or other such men preceded Peter Waldo as the founder of the group.[7] In the
nineteenth century, however, critics came to the conclusion that the poem and other Waldensian documents
offered as proof had been altered.[7] For example, the respected Waldensian scholar Dr. Emilio Comba
dismissed the theories related to the ancient origin of the Waldensians in the middle of the 19th century. [7]

[edit] Origins in the Middle Ages

According to the Waldense Church and the Waldense Scholarship, the Waldensians started with Peter Waldo,
who began to preach on the streets of Lyon in 1177.[1] He was a wealthy merchant and decided to give up all his
worldly possessions; he was sick of his own affluence: that he had so much more than those around him.[5] He
went through the streets giving his money away and decided to become a wandering preacher who would beg
for a living. He began to attract a following. Waldo had a philosophy very similar to Francis of Assisi.[5]

Preaching required official permission, which he was unable to secure from the Bishop in Lyon, and so in 1179
he met Pope Alexander III at the Third Council of the Lateran and asked for permission to preach. Walter Map,
in De Nugis Curialium, narrates the discussions at one of these meetings. The pope, while praising Peter
Waldo's ideal of poverty, ordered him not to preach unless he had the permission of the local clergy. He
continued to preach without permission and by the early 1180s he and his followers were excommunicated and
forced from Lyon. The Catholic church declared them heretics—the group's principal error was "contempt for
ecclesiastical power"—that they dared to teach and preach outside of the control of the clergy "without divine
inspiration." Though there is evidence early Waldensians affirmed doctrines like transubstantiation, prayers for
the dead, and infant baptism, they were also accused of the ignorant teaching of "innumerable errors".[12][13]

In the thirteenth century, there was a substantial enough problem with clerical literacy that preaching to the laity
in churches was hampered. Therefore, the field was somewhat clear for peripatetic evangelism of the
Waldensians. At the same time, the lack of ecclesiastical structure and training meant that each sect could be at
wide variance with others. The Waldensians became a diverse movement[citation needed] as it spread out across
Europe in France, Italy, Germany, and Bohemia.

Particular efforts against the movement began in the 1230s with the Inquisition seeking the leaders of the
movements. The movement had been almost completely suppressed in southern France within twenty years but
the persecution lasted beyond into the 14th century.

When the news of the Reformation reached the Waldensian Valleys, the Tavola Valdese [16] decided to seek
fellowship with the nascent Protestantism. A Synod held 1526 in Laus, a town in Chisone valley, decided to
send envoys to examine the new movement.
In 1532 they met with German and Swiss Protestants and ultimately adapted their beliefs to those of the
Reformed Church. Moreover, the Waldensian absorption into Protestantism led to their transformation from a
group on the edge of Catholicism that shared many Catholic beliefs into a Protestant church adhering to the
theology of John Calvin, which differed much from the beliefs of Peter Waldo. From that moment the Church
became the Italian branch of Reformed churches.
xxx

Éon de l'Étoile (died 1150), from the Latin Eudo de Stella, was a Breton religious leader and "messiah". He
opposed the Roman Catholic Church to the point of pillaging abbeys and monasteries and accumulating a large
treasure during a period of eight years (1140–48). He was considered little more than an "illiterate idiot" by the
Church authorities.[1]

Born near Loudéac to a noble family, Eudon, as he was originally called, was briefly an Augustinian monk
taking up a hermit's life in the Brocéliande (Brécheliant). Around 1140, during the reign of Conan III of
Brittany, Éon took up residence in the abandoned priory of Moinet, but he did not remain there long. According
to his own story, one day while attending the mass, he heard the priest say Per eum qui venturus est judicare
vivos et mortuos ("by he whose it is to judge the living and the dead") and interpreted this as applying to
himself, hearing his name in the eum of the liturgy.[2] He thereafter went by the name Éon. Considering himself
a prophet and messiah, he soon gathered about himself a body of faithful who met at his priory.

He became renowned for his magic, the glow which supposedly surrounded him, his ability to be in many
places at once, and the sumptuous feasts to which he treated his guests. He secured the loyalty of the poor by
granting them great riches, stolen from castles and monasteries. As an article of faith, the established Church
was worldly, its wealth, its sacraments, and its offices worthless and ineffectual. Éon's band of followers
attacked the rich and redistributed their wealth amongst themselves, eventually dressing themselves in the
highest finery and eating lavishly. Members were ranked as "angels", "apostles", etc. Their principal message
was of the Parousia. Éon and his followers spread their message throughout northern Brittany and as far as
Gascony.

Éon's epithet, de l’Étoile ("of the star"), derives from a comet which appeared in 1148. Generally considered
bad omens in the Middle Ages, a comet often signified the downfall of an illustrious person. Under Pope
Eugene III, the Council of Reims in 1148 condemned Éon's movement as heresy (hérésie éoniste). The prelates
ordered him arrested and brought before an ecclesiastical tribunal, though the first men sent to arrest him were
themselves converted by his extravagant lifestyle.[3] Whne Éon was first brought before the council he carried
with him a forked branch, which he said would point heavenward if God were to have two thirds of the world
and he a third and earthwards if their shares were to be reversed. The council is said to have burst into laughter
upon hearing this.[3] He was tortured into confessing his messiahship and condemned to life imprisonment. He
was handed over to the custody of Archbishop Samson of Reims and sent to the Abbey of Saint-Denis, where
he died in 1150. His followers (with names like Wisdom, Knowledge, and Judgement) were hunted down, with
difficulty, and burnt at the stake, for none would disavow their master.
xxx

Arnold of Brescia, (c. 1090–1155), also known as Arnaldus (Italian: Arnaldo da Brescia), was a monk from
Italy who called on the Church to renounce ownership of property, participated in the Commune of Rome, and
was burned alive by the Church and had his ashes thrown into the Tiber River. Though as a religious reformer
no less than a political leader Arnold failed,[1] his teachings on apostolic poverty continued potent after his
death, among "Arnoldists" and more widely among Waldensians and the Spiritual Franciscans, though no
written word of his has survived the official condemnation.[2] Protestants rank him among the precursors of the
Reformation.[3]
Born in Brescia, Arnold became an Augustinian canon and then prior of a monastery in Brescia. He became
very critical of the temporal powers of Catholic Church that involved it in a land struggle in Brescia against the
count-bishop of Brescia. He called on the Church to renounce ownership of the property and return it to the city
government, so as not to be tainted by possession, one aspect of a renunciation of worldliness that he preached.
He was condemned at the Second Lateran Council, in 1139, and forced from Italy.

Having returned to Italy after 1143, Arnold made his peace in 1145 with Pope Eugene III, who ordered him to
submit himself to the mercy of the Church in Rome (CE). When he arrived, he found that Giordano Pierleoni's
followers had asserted the ancient rights of the commune of Rome taken control of the city from papal forces
and founded a republic, the Commune of Rome. Arnold sided with the people immediately and, upon the
deposition of Pierleoni, soon rose to the intellectual leadership of the Commune, calling for liberties and
democratic rights. Arnold taught that clergy while owning property had no power to perform the Sacraments.
He succeeded in driving Pope Eugene into exile in 1146, for which he was excommunicated on 15 July 1148.
When Pope Eugene returned to the city in 1148, Arnold continued to lead the blossoming republic despite his
excommunication. In summing up these events, Caesar Baronius called Arnold "the father of political heresies",
while the Protestant view is expressed by Edward Gibbon, who found that "the trumpet of Roman liberty was
first sounded by Arnold."
Arnold was seized by Imperial forces and was finally tried by the Roman Curia as a rebel. Importantly, he was
never accused of heresy. As a result of his conviction for rebellion, he was hanged in June and his body burnt.
Faced with the stake, he refused to recant any of his positions; since he remained a hero to large sections of the
Roman people and the minor clergy, his ashes were cast into the Tiber, to prevent his burial place becoming
venerated as the shrine of a martyr.