Part 2 - AMORC

in common with Aragon and Cataloniathan it did with the north of France.Their language was very similar to theCatalan language. From now on, in thisarticle I choose to use the names thatthey called themselves, rather than theFrench names you will find in most ofthe books about the Cathars.This whole region had remainedimpregnated with ancient Romancivilisation and refinement. The noblesand knights, the Counts of Toulouse, the Countsof Foix and the Viscounts of Béziers, were learnedscholars; and the burgesses were distinguishedand emancipated minds. Esclarmonda de Foix, aromantic figure of medieval legend, and sister ofRaimon-Rogièr, Count of Foix was initiated intothe Cathar faith, as was Raimon-Rogièr’s wifePhilippa. Count Raimon VI of Toulouse, thoughnot adopting their religion, openly favoured them,even taking sides with them at times against theRoman Catholic clergy.The first great centres of Catharism in theSouth of France were at Montpellier and Narbonne;from there they spread across the Pyrenees intoSpain. Later on, Toulouse was their headquarters,and they had several bishops in Albi. In fact, itis from the name of that town that they werecalled “Albigenses” as well as Cathars, and thename Albigensian has remained attached to thepersecutions they suffered at the hands of theRoman Catholic Church in many places suchas Béziers, Carcassonne, Agen and Razès.The unusual purity of life of theCathars was a great contrast to the appallinglicentiousness and simony of the Catholicclergy of that epoch. While the Cathars weresolely devoted to the welfare of the people, nursingand healing them, the Catholic clergy extortedtithes from the people, kept mistresses and sold allsacraments. Indeed, they were like the merchantsin the Temple that Jesus drove out.We have therefore on the one hand Catharmen and women, renowned as weavers, agriculturalworkers, doctors and educators, who conformed asclosely as possible to the accepted Christian codeof life, and on the other hand, we have a Catholicclergy of immense corruption and materialism.Moreover the prelates of Rome were often temporallords with considerable estates and wealth, caringmore for power and for the good of their owndynasties than for the welfare and spiritual healthOccitan Crossof the people. The popes occupiedthe position of “vicar of God” muchmore for political reasons than for anydefence of Christian principles, and itis not surprising therefore that so manyordinary people sympathised with theCathars, whilst the corruption of theclergy kept the mass of followers awayfrom the Roman Catholic Church.There was also a deep seatedantagonism between the clergy andnobility of Occitània, for the nobility extendedhelp to those whose extreme purity of life anddisinterest in material wealth had won theirrespect. Furthermore, whereas the Cathars were nothreat to the nobility’s temporal power, the RomanCatholic clergy most definitely was. The Catharswere, we may say, socially and spiritually, severalcenturies in advance of their time. One of the mostrenowned of their ministers was Guilabert deCastres, who was Bishop of Toulouse and whosepreaching and popularity gave much trouble tothe Catholic Church at the beginning of the 13 thcentury. He openly censured the corruption of theCatholic clergy and it was only a matter of timebefore things came to a head.The Cathars believed that an unworthyperson, i.e., one who did not live the teachingsof Christ, had no right to minister to others.Title was nothing for them, and they lookedonly to the intrinsic value of the individual. TheTitle was nothing for them, and theylooked only to the intrinsic value of theindividual.poorest labourer, if his mode of living and spiritualstandards were high, was more qualified to becomea minister than a man who had been ordained apriest merely by fiat from Rome. Ordination meantnothing to them.This type of preaching was therefore adirect attack against the mandates of Rome.The simplicity of the lives of those mystics andtheir disinterestedness in temporal power wereconsidered revolutionary. Their teachings were amost dangerous heresy, and a transgression againstthe established dogma of Roman Catholicism.Condemned by the PopeCondemned as Manichaeans, this was sufficientpretext for Rome to order a crusade against theThe Rosicrucian Beacon -- June 200815