Cathar
/ˈkaθɑː
/noun
A member of a heretical medieval Christian sect which professed a form of Manichaean dualism and sought to achieve great spiritual purity.Pope Innocent III declares a crusade against the Languedoc region of southern France, stronghold of the heretical Cathar Christian sect....
- Heresy can only exist where there is an orthodoxy to define it: both medieval Catholics and medieval Cathars laid claim to being true Christians.
- Simon is best known as the ruthless leader of the notorious Albigensian Crusade against the Cathar heretics of southern France.
Derivatives
Catharism
- Whether, as has been conjectured, an ancient stratum of peasant materialism or an underground current of Catharism provided the interpretive framework for his reading cannot be determined.
- Scholastics' responses to Catharism in particular drew extensively on their concept of the natural law.
- Incidentally, it has always seemed strange to me that modern New Agers and others are attracted to Catharism, with its uncompromising rejection of our world.
Catharist
- In the Middle Ages, some groups, such as the Waldenses and Catharists, rejected infant baptism.
- The Catharists considered themselves to hold the Christian faith in its most pristine form.
- Between 1030-1040 an important Catharist community was discovered at the castle of Monteforte near Asti in Piedmont.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from medieval Latin Cathari (plural), from Greek katharoi 'the pure'.