Crusade Against the Grail - Rennes-le-Chateau Research and ...

THE "PURE ONES" AND THEIR DOCTRINE 83
as Christian morality. The Christians did not demand the mortification of
everything corporeal, the scorning of terrestrial creation, or the dissolution of all
Earthly links. With imagination and desire, the Cathars wanted to achieve general
perfection on Earth, and out of fear of losing themselves in the materialism of the
Catholic Church, spiritualized everything: religion, cult, and life.
Even more surprising is the fact that this doctrine, at the same time the most
tolerant and intolerant found in all Christianity, should expand with a vigor
unprecedented in history. Without any doubt, the fundamental reason for this was
the pious and pure life of the Cathars, in stark contrast with the type of life led by
the orthodox clergy. The underlying cause for the expansion of Catharism in the
south of France can be traced to the fact that Occitan Catharism was indigenous:
the Occitanians felt closer to the myths and allegories of the Pure Ones than the
sermons of the orthodox clerics, which were normally uncultivated and
undignified. 17
Neither should we forget that Cathar dualism provided a beneficial contrast to
the fear of the devil so extensive in the medieval Catholic Church. The oppressive
influence of demons in the intellectual behavior of the Christian Middle Ages is
well known. In Catholicism, the Antichrist was the rival of God, with his Hell, his
armies, and his Satanic power over spirits. Compared with Catholics' fear of the
devil, a desolate obsession that lasted an entire millennium, the Cathar idea to
engage Luzbel was somewhat more conciliatory. For them, Lucifer was a rebel-
lious angel, non-spiritual and mendacious, the embodiment of the world as it was
and continued to be. According to the heretics, when humanity looks for the path
of spirituality, it will have crushed the power of the prince of this world. He will
have no other choice than to submit to the Spirit with contrition and penitence.
If we strip the Cathar doctrine of all its mythological accessories, we are left
with Kant's famous quadruple base:
First: Coexistence of man in the principle of good and bad.
Second: Conflict between the good principle and the bad for supremacy in the
human being.
Third: Victory of the good over bad, the beginning of the Kingdom of God.