¹ Matt. 5. 48; in the Cathar rite of initiation the celebrant speaks of ‘Aquest Sanh babtisme … a tengut la gleisa de Deu desi Apostols en sa, et es vengutz de bos homes en bos homes entro aici…’; in the same Ritual the opening words of St John’s Gospel contain this revealing scribal error at John 19: ‘Erat lux vera que illuminât bonem [sic] hominem venientem in hunc mundum’; Clédat, L., Le Nouveau Testament traduit au XIIIe siècle en langue provençale suivi d’un Rituel cathare (Photolithographie. Bibliothèque de la Faculté des Lettres de Lyon, IV, Paris, 1887) (reprinted Geneva, 1968), pp. xvii, 470.Google Scholar

² Guiraud, E.g. J., Cartulaire de Notre Dame de Prouille, précédé d’une étude sur l’Albigéisme languedocien au xiie et xiiie siècles, 2 vols (Paris, 1907)Google Scholar; Broeckx, E., Le Catharisme (Universitas catholica Lovaniensis. Dissertationes, Series n, vol. 10, Hoogstraten, 1916).Google Scholar

³ Nelli, E.g. R., La vie quotidienne des Cathares du Languedoc au xiiie siècle (Paris, 1969).Google Scholar

⁴ Söderberg, H., La Religion des Cathares. Étude sur le Gnosticisme de la basse antiquité et du moyen âge (Uppsala, 1949).Google Scholar

⁵ Duvemoy, , Religion, p. 269.Google Scholar

⁶ Brenon, Anne, Le vrai visage du Catharisme (Toulouse, 1988).Google Scholar

⁷ Occitan New Testament and Ritual: Clédat, Nouveau Testament; Book of the Two Principles: Thouzellier, C., ed., Livre des deux principes, SC, 198 (Paris, 1973)Google Scholar [henceforth Liber]; Latin Ritual: Thouzellier, C., ed., Rituel Cathare, SC 236 (Paris, 1977)Google Scholar; the Gloss and the Apologia: ed. Venckeleer, Th., ‘Un Recueil cathare, le manuscrit A.6.10 de la “collection vaudoise” de Dublin: 1. “Une Apologie’“, RBPH, 38 (1960), pp. 815–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Une Glose sur le Pater’, 39 (1961), pp. 759–93; Cathar Treatise: Thouzellier, C., ed., Un Traité cathare inédit du début du XlUe siècle, d’après le “Liber contra Manicheos” de Durand de Huesca, Bibliothèque de la RHE, 37 (Louvain and Paris, 1961)Google Scholar [henceforth Traité]; Tetricus: in Cremona, Moneta de, Adversus Catharos et Valdenses Libri Quinqué, ed. Ricchini, T. (Rome, 1743)Google Scholar; Stella in Salvo Burci, Liber supra Stella, ed. Milano, Ilarino da, Aevum, 19 (1945), pp. 307–41Google Scholar. I have not included in this list The Secret Book of St John translated by the Cathars from Old Slavonic, because it was only read by one group of Italian Cathars and was considered heretical even by some of them.

⁸ Nelli, R, La Philosophie du Catharisme: le dualisme radical au xiiie siècle (Paris, 1975).Google Scholar

⁹ Sacconi, Rainier, Summa de Catharis et de Pauperibus de Lugduno, ed. Sanjek, F., AFP, 44 (1974), pp. 50–7, 59.Google Scholar

¹⁰ M R Harris, The Occitan Epistle to the Laodiceans: towards an edition of PA 36’, in Cornagliotti, A. et al, eds, Miscellanea di Studi Romanzi offerta a Giuliano Casca Queirazza, 2 vols (Alessandria, 1988), 1, pp. 428–46.Google Scholar

¹¹ Sacconi, pp. 51–2.

¹² ‘Itera iste Ioannes [de Lugio] recipit totam Bibliam, sed putat earn fuisse scriptam in alio mundo et ibidem fuisse formatos Adam et Euam’, Sacconi, p. 56; Liber, Contra Garatewes, De omni creatione, De manifestatione fidelium, pp. 376–8.

¹³ Clédat published only a lithographic edition of the manuscript. M. R. Harris has been working for many years on this text, see n. 10 above.

¹⁴ Ecclus. 42. 25. For the Cathar understanding of it, Traité, eh. xii, p. 209.

¹⁵ Rev. 21. 1; Traité, eh. vi, pp. 147–8.

¹⁶ Ps. 116. 9 (Vulgate, 114. 9); Traité, eh. xvi, pp. 244–5.

¹⁷ Absolute dualists ‘credunt quod iste Deus sanctus et verus suum populum habuerit caelestem constantem ex tribus scilicet corpore et anima et spiritu’: Moneta de Cremona, 1, I. p. 3.

¹⁸ Rev. 12. 7–8. Sacconi lists among the beliefs of the Albanenses: ‘Item quod dyabolus cum suis angelis ascendit in celum et, facto ibi prélio cum Michaele archangelo et angelis boni dei, extraxit inde tertiam partem creaturarum dei, et infundit eas cotidie in humanis corporibus et in brutis et etiam de uno corpore eas transmittit in aliud, donee omnes reducentur in celum’, Summa, p. si.

¹⁹ Rev. 12. 4; cf. Liber, Compendium, Quod deus non sit potens in malis, pp. 310–12.

²⁰ Jer. 5. 19; Traité, eh. xvi, p. 255; Liber, Compendium, De deo alieno, p. 322 (where the prophecy is wrongly attributed to Isaiah).

²¹ The very complex theology of the Cathars about the relationship between the heavenly and earthly bodies, souls, and spirits of the fallen angels is most clearly described by Duvernoy, J., “La Religion cathare en Occitanie’, in Lafont, R and Pech, R., eds, Les Cathares en Occitanie (Paris, 1982), pp. 211–24.Google Scholar

²² Cf. Sacconi, n. 18 above.

²³ The evidence about Cathars eating fish is summarized by Borst, , Katharer, p. 184Google Scholar and n. 16.

²⁴ ‘Quidam homo est [qui] nunquam habuit scientiam discernendi bonum a malo, verum a falso, ut valeat salvari, nee habet nee habebit unquam, et sine dubio multi inveniuntur in hoc mundo…. ergo non fuit in eo potentia salvandi…’ (italics mine), Liber, De arbitrio, De ignorantia multorum, p. 394. For evil animals see n. 25 below.

²⁵ ‘Credunt etiam quod quando anima egreditur de corpore humano, transit ad aliud sive humanum sive bestiale …’, Manifestano haeresis Albigensium et Lugduniensium, perhaps written by Ermengaud of Béziers, , ed. Dondaine, A., ‘Durand de Huesca et la polémique anti- cathare’, AFP, 24 (1959), p. 270Google Scholar. But an angelic soul could not be reborn in a rat, a toad, or a reptile, which were considered creatures of the evil god. Duvernoy, , Religion, pp. 93–7.Google Scholar

²⁶ The Cathars applied to themselves the laments of the Jews captive in Babylon: Ps. 137. 4 (Vulgate, 136. 4); Traite’, eh. xv, pp. 244–5.

²⁷ Ps. 51. 12 (Vulgate, 50. 14); Traité, eh. xix, p. 298.

²⁸ Clédat, , Nouveau Testament, pp. vi, 470.Google Scholar

²⁹ E.g. ‘… ipse deus et filius eius Ihesus Christus qui unum et idem sunt secundum illos [Catholicos]’, Liber, De Libero Arbitrio, Reprobatio sententie, p. 190. The Cathar teaching about the Holy Spirit was very complex: Moneta de Cremona describes it and explains that the Spirit whom they invoked in Trinitarian formulae was the Spiritus principalis. Cf. ‘spiritu principali confirma me’, Ps. 50. 14 (Vulgate). But they held: ‘Filium majorem Spiritu Sancto, et ab ipso substantialiter diversum’, Moneta, I, 1, pp. 4–5.

³⁰ This is shown most clearly by the discourses of the celebrant at the consolamentum: Clédat, , Nouveau Testament, pp. xi-xxii, 473–9Google Scholar; Rituel Cathare, pp. 194–261.

³¹ Duvcrnoy, E.g., Religion, pp. 82–9.Google Scholar

³² Manifestatici haeresis, p. 270.

³³ ‘… lo nostre Segnor Yesu Christ … aisicom es scrit al vangeli, he reymu lo règne sobre dit al sio sane …’, ‘Une Glose’, p. 783.

³⁴ ‘… there has never been any official formulation in orthodox Christianity of the mystery of the Lord’s redemptive work and … there is every likelihood that a variety of emphases and interpretations will continue’: ‘Atonement’, Cross, F. L. and Livingstone, E. A., eds, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd edn (Oxford, 1997), p. 123.Google Scholar

³⁵ Salvo Burci asserts of the Albanenses: ‘Item dicunt in hoc mundo infernum esse, idesthie esse ignem et frigus et omne malum et non alius infemus nee fuit nee erit’, Aevum, 19, p. 313.

³⁶ ‘Apologie’, eh. i, RHPB, 38, pp. 820–2.

³⁷ This view seems to have been quite widely held: ‘Credunt… [Christum] cum eodem [novo] testamento … per septem terras transisse et inde populum suum liberasse’, Manifatatio haeresis, AFP, 24, p. 270; John of Lugio: ‘recipit totam Bibliam, sed putat earn fuisse scriptam in alio mundo …’, Sacconi, p. 56.

³⁸ Luke 3. 16; Occitan Ritual, ed. Clédat, , Nouveau Testament, pp. xvi, 476.Google Scholar

³⁹ There was no infant baptism, but children as young as ten or twelve were sometimes consoled; examples in Guiraud, , Cartulaire, 1, pp. cclxxvi–cclxxix.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Occitan, Ritual, ed. Clédat, Nouveau Testament, pp. xx, 479.Google Scholar

⁴¹ I Cor. 15. 44; Moneta de Cremona discusses the Cathar understanding of this text, IV, VIII, iv, p. 360.

⁴² Matt 5. 48.

⁴³ The principles underlying these obligations are set out in detail in the Latin Ritual for receiving the consolamentum, Rituel Cathare, pp. 246–60.

⁴⁴ Hutchinson, Carole A., The Hermit Monks of Grandmont (Kalamazoo, MI, 1989)Google Scholar; Certosino, Un and Dubois, J., ‘Certosini’, Dizionario degli Istituti di Perfezione (Rome, 1975), 2, cols 782–821.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Duvernoy, , Religion, pp. 159–60.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Douais, C., Les Albigeois. Leur Origine. Action de l’Église aux XHIe siècle (Paris, 1879), p. 253Google Scholar; for a refutation, Borst, , Katharer, p. 197.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ ‘E deven saber que els eran debitor de lo comencament… co es a saber l’un l’aotre que se amesan entre lor …’, ‘Une Glose’, RBPH, 39, p. 777.

⁴⁸ Rituel Cathare, p. 248.

⁴⁹ This element of compromise about possessions is very evident in the opening rubrics of the form for consoling a dying believer, where the conferring of the sacrament is made dependent on his payment of outstanding monetary debts to the Cathar Church: ‘£ si deu lunha re e o pod pagar far o deu. £ si far no o vol, no deu esser receubutz.’ Clédat, , Nouveau Testament, pp. xxii, 480.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ ‘E si be o faitz entro a la fi, avem esperansa que la vostra arma aia vida durable’, ibid. pp. xix, 478.

⁵¹ Jas. 2. 10; ‘Apologie’, ch. 9, RBPH, 38, p. 827.

⁵² Moneta de Cremona cites the Albanensian Cathar Tetricus, commenting on I Pet. 3. 18–19: ‘Ex qua etiam auctoritate voluit esse miser haereticus Tetricus nomine quod populus Dei antiquus sit, non novus, id est de novo creatus’, I, IV, v, p. 61.

⁵³ ‘Apologie’, eh. i, RBPH, 38, 820–2.

⁵⁴ Before the time of persecution the perfect went to considerable lengths to seek the companionship of other Cathars when they left their communities. E.g. the evidence of an Inquisition witness cited by Duvernoy: ‘As this heretic did not wish to eat without a companion … I went and fetched another heretic who kept him company during the meal’, ‘La religion’, in Lafont and Pech, eds, Les Cathares en Occitanie, p. 239.

⁵⁵ Matt. 18. 20; cf.Clédat, , Nouveau Testament, pp. xviii, 477.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Solovjev, A. V., ‘La Messe cathare’, Cahiers d’études cathares, 12 (1951-2), pp. 199–206.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ ‘Albanenses dicunt quod parus ille non benedicitur corporalis nee potest accipere aliquam benedictionem, cum ipse pañis sit creatura dyaboli…’, Sacconi, p. 44. Examples of believers’ devotion to the blessed bread of the Cathars, Duvernoy, Religion, p. 216.

⁵⁸ ‘“Amen, amen dico vobis, nisi manducaveritis carnem fdii hominis”, id est nisi observaveritis precepta filii Dei, “et eius sanguinem biberitis”, id est nisi spiritualem intentionem novi testamenti receperitis, “non habetis vitam in vobis”’ (commenting on John 6. 53). Rituel Cathare, p. 206.

⁵⁹ All known Cathar versions use this form, e.g. Clédat, , Nouveau Testament, p. 470.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ ‘Panem nostrum supersubstantialem da nobis hodie’, Matt. 6. n; Tanem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie’, Luke 11. 3.

⁶¹ For the use of ‘supersubstantialem’ in the Pater Noster by the nuns of the Paraclete, see Abelard, Peter, Epistola, X, PL 178, cols 335–40Google Scholar; Waddell, C., ‘Peter Abelard’s Letter 10’, Cistercian Medieval History, 2, Cistercian Studies, 24 (Kalamazoo, Ml, 1976), pp. 75–86Google Scholar. I should like to thank Dr J. M. B. Porter for drawing my attention to this source.

⁶² Ter co aquest poblé prega aquest pan sobresostancial, co es la carita, esser dona a si del Paire per co que, cant ille la haoran recebua, ille sian troba perfeit en l’esgardement del lor Dio …’, ‘Une Glose’, eh. vi, RBPH, 39, p. 777.

⁶³ At the administration of the consolamentum in the Latin rite the minister made this comment on I Cor. 13. 3: ‘“Et si distribuero in cibos pauperum omnes facultates meas, et si tradidero corpus meum ita ut ardeam, caritatem autem non habuero, nichil mihi prodest’, id est sine hoc baptismate spiritus caritatis.’ Rituel Cathare, p. 246.

⁶⁴ “Enaisi lo Dio de tota gracia ordene lo sio Fill ama e lo don de la carita a … lo poble perfar, consodar e confermar’, ‘Une Glose’, eh. v, RBPH, 39, p. 775.

⁶⁵ ‘De las nosttas lengas cazem em pat ulas ossiossas, en vas patlementz, en tis …’, Clédat, , Nouveau Testament, pp. x, 470.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Sacconi, , ‘De confessione venalium’, p. 46.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Anselm of Alessandria, Tractatus de hereticis, ch. 6, ed. A. Dondaine, , ‘La Hiérarchie cathare en Italie, II’, AFP, 20 (1950), p. 315.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ ‘… non vidi aliquem ex eis orare secreto seorsum ab alus, aut ostendere se tristem de peccatis suis, siue lacriman vel percutere pectus et dicere: “Propitius esto, Domine, [michi] peccatori”, sive aliquid aliud huiusmodi, quod sit signum contritionís.’ Sacconi, Summa, AFP, 44, p. 45.

⁶⁹ This appears to be the opinion of the absolute dualists: ‘Item nota quod quidem doctor Albanensium, scilicet Lanfrancinus de Vaure, dicit, et est opinio Albanensium, quod non omnes oves sive anime que descenderunt vel ceciderunt de celo incorporantur, sed aliqui purgantur in aere isto caliginoso sine corpore aliquo, et maiorem penam sustinent quam ille que sunt in corporibus, sed cicius salvantur; et ille sunt de quibus dicitur in evangelio: “Alias oves babeo que non sunt ex etc.”’ John 10. 16), Anselm of Alessandria, Tractatus de hereticis, AFP, 20, p. 312.

⁷⁰ E.g. The “perfect” were the ministers of the Cathar Church; usually they wandered in pairs through the country … and so were able to keep in close touch with their followers.’ Strayer, J. R., The Albigensian Crusades (Ann Arbor, MI, 1971), p. 32.Google Scholar

⁷¹ This appears from the very detailed analysis of Inquisition records by Abels, R. and Harrison, E., The participation of women in Languedocian Catharism’, MS, 41 (1979), pp. 215–51Google Scholar; Anne Brenon rightly emphasises that there was no theoretical distinction made between the sexes in regard to the preaching ministry: Les Femmes Cathares (Paris, 1992), pp. 210–15.

⁷² Berbeigueira, the wife of Lobenx of Puylaurens, told the inquisitors that she had seen a Cathar perfect who ‘For a very long time remained seated on a chair, unmoving, like the trunk of a tree, unaware of what was going on around him’, cited by Guiraud, , Cartulaire, 1, p. lxiv.Google Scholar

⁷³ When the angelic souls fell from grace they lost the right to pray: ‘Aquest poble ofrent aquesta oración al Segnor laide lo nom del sio Dio entre las genz a las cals el intre, aisicom lo Segnor dis per E nom lo cal vos laides entre las genz a-las cals vos intre”’ (Ezek. 36. 22). ‘Une Glose’, ch. ii, RBPH, 39, p. 765. This right was restored to the Cathar at his consoling.

⁷⁴ This form is reported in Inquisition records, Duvernoy, , Religion, pp. 209–10.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ John 15. 13–14.

⁷⁶ Salvo Burci, possibly on the authority of the Stella, attributes to the Albanenses the beliefs that: ‘… bonus Deus non sanaret opera diaboli’ (and therefore Christ cannot have performed miracles of corporal healing); and ‘Mundus iste et corpora ista sunt a Deo non bono, et bonus Deus non habet aliquid ad faciendum in istis in aliquo casu …’, Aevum, 19, pp.310. 339.

⁷⁷ The Cathar Church’s understanding of the prohibition of killing is explained in ‘Apologie’, eh. iii, RBPH, 38, p. 823. Examples from the Inquisition records of how Cathars refused to kill animals even when in danger of death, in Duvernoy, Religion, pp. 191–2.

⁷⁸ ‘Item credunt quod comedere carnes et oua vel caseum, etiam in urgenti necessitate sit mortale peccatum, et hoc ideo quia nascuntur ex coito.’ This opinion of Sacconi must be given weight because he had been a professed Cathar, though a moderate dualist: Sacconi, p. 43.

⁷⁹ Moneta de Cremona accuses the Albanensian theologian Tetricus of making no distinction between men and beasts: ‘… Tetricus Haereticus in quadam parte cujusdam Libri sui cap. II… [asserit] quod omnis creatura Deum laudat, volens hoc habere ex eo quod legitur Apoc. 5, w.13-14 … Ignoravit autem … quod creatura rationalis laudet, et etiam aliae creaturae; sed differenter, quia creatura rationalis, id est Homo, vel Angelus, effective, aliae autem creaturae materialiter …’, I, VII, ii, p. 79.

⁸⁰ M R. Harris has made a conjectural restoration of this rubric, which he believes has been wrongly copied, to suggest that the animal should only be left in the trap if the Cathars are unable to follow their normal practice of leaving monetary compensation for the huntsman when they release it: ‘Le problème des bonshommes devant l’animal piégé dans le Rituel cathare occitan’, Heresis, 2 (1984), pp. 15–19.

⁸¹ ‘Et dicunt quod sententia iudicii iam data est, pro eo quod dicitur: “Princeps mundi huius iam iudicatus est’” (fohn 16. 11), De Heresi Catharorum in Lombardia, ed. A. Dondaine, ‘La hiérarchie cathare d’Italie, I’, AFP, 19 (1949), p. 309.

⁸² ‘O miseri tapini, vos multum nugamini de corporibus humanis, cum mortua sint, et ponitis ea in foveas hue et illuc privatim …’, wrote Salvo Burci, addressing all the main schools of Cathars, Aevum, 19, p. 337; but it would seem that in times of peace the families of believers consoled on their deathbeds often insisted on more conventional funerals: Wakefield, W. L., ‘Burial of heretics in the Middle Ages’, Heresis, 5 (1985), pp. 29–32.Google Scholar

⁸³ 2 Tim. 4. 7–8; Traité, eh. xix, p. 298; Moneta de Cremona also reports the Cathar use of this text: I, IV, i, p. 50.