Gibbon’s record of the Albigensian heresy and persecution is comparatively brief. “It was in the county of the Albigeois, in the southern provinces of France, that the Paulicians were most deeply implanted; and the same vicissitudes of martyrdom and revenge which had been displayed in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates were repeated in the 13th century on the banks of the Rhone. The laws of the Eastern Emperors were revived by Frederic II. The insurgents of Tephrice were represented by the barons and cities of Languedoc. Pope Innocent III. surpassed the sanguinary fame of Theodora. It was in cruelty alone that her soldiers could equal the heroes of the Crusades, and the cruelty of her priests was far excelled by the founders of the Inquisition—an office more adapted to confirm, than to refute, the belief of an evil principle. The visible assemblies of the Paulicians, or Albigeois, were extirpated by fire and sword: and the bleeding remnant escaped by flight, concealment, or Catholic conformity. But the invincible spirit which they had kindled still lived and breathed in the Western world. In the state, in the church, in the cloister, a latent succession was preserved of the disciples of St. Paul, who protested against the tyranny of Rome, embraced the Bible as the rule of faith and purified their creed from all the visions of the Gnostic theology.”1
Thus Gibbon, in his usual florid and complacent style, allocates the Albigenses to a place in history, definitely associating them with the true believers who were persecuted for conscience’ sake, as but one section of that great community who set themselves against the Roman Anti-Christ. In the same chapter Gibbon refers to the doctrines held by the Paulicians, the sect from which the Albigenses sprang, and the doubt arises as to how these people could be considered part of the “latent succession of the disciples of St. Paul,” except in their own imagination, and to what extent they “embraced the Bible as the rule of faith,” rejecting, as they did, the whole of the Old Testament.
The name Albigenses was derived from the small town of Albi, north-east of Toulouse, which was the central city of the sect. They occupied the districts of Toulouse, Languedoc and Montpellier in the south-west of France, the same region which later became the stronghold of the Huguenots. There were at the same time, the end of the 12th century, sects in other parts of Europe called by such names as the Paterins and the Catharsts2 who held similar doctrines which they had inherited from the people first known as the Paulicians. The last-named were followers of a certain Constantine of Armenia, who called himself Sylvanus, and claimed to be preaching the doctrine and living the life of Paul and his fellow-workers. They were violently opposed to the Roman Catholic Church; the sacraments, the cross and the use of images, the service of an ordained ministry in the church were all rejected together with the Old Testament scriptures. Their doctrines were in turn influenced by Manichaeism, a doctrine introduced by the Persian Mani, incorporating many Christian, Persian and Buddhist ideas. The chief principles of Manichaeism were that Light is the equivalent to Good, Darkness to Evil; God is Good, Satan is the Spirit of Evil born from the Kingdom of Darkness. Man was sent to fight against Satan but was conquered by him, and he can only become good by obtaining the true gnosis. Some men, who were prophets, were imbued with this true knowledge which it was their duty to teach to the world. As prophets they had to live a life of strict asceticism, refusing to eat meat or to marry.
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Author: Madge M. Appleyard
Keywords: Albigenses, Albigensian heresy, Albigenses heresy, Albigensian persecution, sect, reformation, Roman catholic church, catholic church, persecution, heretic, Paulician, Toulouse, Languedoc, Montpellier, France, Inquisition, Cathars, Catharism, dualism, dualist, Gnostic, Gnosticism
Source: “The Albigenses,” The Testimony, Vol. 8, No. 85, January 1938, pp. 14-8.
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