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Perfection and Pragmatism: Cathar Attitudes to the Household
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 January 2016
Extract
When the Cathar Church was first established in southern France in the twelfth century it was generally tolerated by the secular authorities. At that time its hierarchy recognized only one type of Cathar household, which consisted of single-sex communities of initiated members known as ‘the perfect’. After the introduction of the Papal Inquisition in Languedoc in 1233, the Cathar Church was systematically persecuted and one consequence of this was that its leaders’ conception of what constituted a Cathar household became diversified. The traditional households of the perfect retained their central place in Cathar life, but the hierarchy also recognized a new type of Cathar household. This consisted of families of committed believers and their dependants, whose work was seen to be vital to the survival of their Church. This essay examines how this change in attitude came about and what its practical consequences were for Catharism.
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References
1 The text of Pierre Garsias’s testimony from which this statement comes was published by Douais, C., Documents pour servir à l’histoire de l’Inquisition dans le Languedoc, 2 vols (Paris, 1900), 2: 90–114 Google Scholar, quotation at 92; ET Wakefield, W. L., Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Southern France 1100-1250 (London, 1974), 242–9,Google Scholar quotation at 244.
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