High on a sacred mountain in Southern France, the whitened ruins of Montségur are a reminder of the last actively visible gnostic school in the West, the Cathari. Below Montségur lies a peaceful meadow, its name, 'Field of the Burned', the only indication of a grim event that took place there a little over 700 years ago. In March, 1244, 205 Cathars were burned alive on the site, rather than renounce their creed.
The name Cathari, means 'pure' in Greek. Cathars in general formed an anti-sacerdotal party in opposition to the Catholic Church, protesting what they perceived to be the moral, spiritual, and political corruption of the Church. They claimed an Apostolic succession from the founders of Christianity, and saw Rome as having betrayed and corrupted the original purity of the message.
The History of the Cathars.
(thanks Sam)
3 comment(s):
Just got back from a trip to that area - fascinating
Let's see they got the Montsegeur story wrong; the castle wasn't stormed the Cathar's made a two day truce, at the end of the truce most of them threw themselves off of a cliff. This is a fairly basic aspect to the story, and if they got this wrong...
Then there are the Perfecti, the Cathar who were healers and intinerant preachers, NOT weavers. Which is very logical since it's a bit hard to be a weaver on the road.
As I have taken pains to point out on many other forums, the background information on the websites cited are mumbo-jumbo. A simple online search to reputable scholarly sources will quickly disprove the premise of any of the links cited.
Contrary to the viral marketing websites commissioned on behalf of Universal Studios for the movie "Wanted 2008" there was no ancient order of assassins formed by a group of weavers 1000 years ago who were the spiritual descendants of the medieval Cathars.
The idea that simple living, plain speaking pacifists would turn into pistol packing secret coding, future-telling genetically engineering purveyors of death is not only defamatory and historically unfounded, but simply ludicrous. It is as extreme an idea as the violence found in the movie.
Thank you for your time.
Brad Hoffstetter
Communications Division
Assembly of good Christians
www.cathar.net
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