Catharism was a Christian dualist or Gnostic revival movement that thrived in some areas of Southern Europe, particularly what is now northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. The followers were known as Cathars and are now mainly remembered for a prolonged period of persecution by the Catholic Church, which did not recognise their belief as being Christian. Catharism appeared in Europe in the Languedoc region of France in the 11th century and this is when the name first appears. The adherents were sometimes known as Albigensians, after the city Albi in southern France where the movement first took hold. The belief system may have originated in Persia or the Byzantine Empire. Catharism was initially taught by ascetic leaders who set few guidelines, and, thus, some Catharist practices and beliefs varied by region and over time. The Catholic Church denounced its practices including the Consolamentum ritual, by which Cathar individuals were baptized and raised to the status of "perfect".
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The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, in southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crown and promptly took on a political flavour, resulting in not only a significant reduction in the number of practising Cathars, but also a realignment of the County of Toulouse in Languedoc, bringing it into the sphere of the French crown and diminishing the distinct regional culture and high level of influence of the Counts of Barcelona.
Perfect refers to Perfection, a philosophical concept.
The Château de Montségur is a former fortress near Montségur, a commune in the Ariège department in southern France. Its ruins are the site of a razed stronghold of the Cathars. The present fortress on the site, though described as one of the "Cathar castles," is actually of a later period. It has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1862.
Raymond Roger Trencavel was a member of the noble Trencavel family. He was viscount of Béziers and Albi, and viscount of Carcassonne and the Razès.
Saint-Félix-Lauragais is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France.
Montréal is a commune just south of Carcassonne in the Aude department, a part of the ancient Languedoc province and the present-day Occitanie region in southern France.
Lombers is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France.
Fanjeaux is a commune in the Aude department in southern France.
Puivert is a commune in the Aude department in the Occitanie region in southern France.
Perfect was the name given by Bernard of Clairvaux to the leader of the medieval Christian religious movement of southern France and northern Italy commonly referred to as the Cathars. The Perfect were not clerics in any way, but were merely members who had become ‘adepts’ in the teaching, and whose role was that of aiding the ordinary members achieve the rewards of belief and practice - men and women could become Perfecti. The term reflects that such a person was seen by the Catholic Church as the "perfect heretic". As "bonhommes" Perfecti were expected to follow a lifestyle of extreme austerity and renunciation of the world which included abstaining from eating meat and avoiding all sexual contact. By that virtue they were recognized as trans-material angels by their followers, the Credentes. Perfecti were drawn from all walks of life and counted aristocrats, merchants and peasants among their number. Women could also become Perfects; Female Perfects were known as Parfaites or Perfectae.
Caussou is a commune in the Ariège department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France.
Verfeil is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France.
Cathar castles is a modern term used by the tourism industry to denote a number of medieval castles of the Languedoc region. Some had a Cathar connection, in that they offered refuge to dispossessed Cathars in the thirteenth century. Many of these sites were replaced by new castles built by the victorious French Crusaders and the term is also applied to these fortifications despite having no connection with Cathars. The fate of many Cathar castles, at least for the early part of the Crusade, is outlined in the contemporary Occitan "Chanson de la Croisade", translated into English as the "Song of the Cathar Wars".
Credentes or Believers, were the ordinary followers of what became known as the Cathar or Albigensian movement, a heretical sect which flourished in western Europe during the 11th, 12th and 13th Centuries. Credentes constituted the main part of the Cathar community in the region. Although Catharism sprang up in Spain, the Rhineland, Flanders and Italy its main focus was in the southern region of France, particularly the area known as the Languedoc. Although pacifist in nature, Catharism drew the condemnation of the Catholic Church which, when persuasion failed, launched successive Crusades and instigated the Inquisition to destroy it.
Montségur is a commune in the Ariège department in southwestern France.
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