Ping!
While human life was in the crosshairs, animal life was sacrosanct. The Albigensians would never take an animal’s life. This was because they believed in something like reincarnation, so a dead person’s soul might be within an animal.
It never occurred to them that they might be "reincarnated" as a sick child? Or that an alive person's soul resided in a sick child?
Generally a good article.
However, it should be remembered that almost everything we know about the Albigensians was written by their enemies, at a time when rhetoric against one’s enemies (or the enemies of God) was often unrestrained by anything resembling respect for truth.
Check out what the same people at this time said about the Jews, and somewhat later said about Protestants. (And what Protestants said about them, and about the Jews for that matter.)
Not defending those of Albi, just pointing out that the bare truth about them may have been embroidered somewhat.
Anything not of God is of Satan, and contradictions don't matter to him.
Very thought-provoking article. The Evil One is adept at recycling his most effective lies.
Pray that people return to God....SOON!
I’ve had evangelical protestant friends point to the Albigensians as the “underground remnant” of true Christianity in opposition to the Catholic church of their day.
(This allows protestants to offer a timeline going back before the Reformation.)
Anyway when I explain what the Albigensians really believed, they either concede the point (and implicitly acknowledge that their pastor was misleading them about the Albigensians) or accuse me of lying for the church.
Some details that are often missed when discussing the Spanish Inquisition, were first, that the laity in Spain were utterly horrified by not just the heterodoxy, or even heresy, but the rise of debauched and perverted paganism, often using the church itself for its purposes.
Second was that the existing Spanish royal inquisition was not only ineffective in dealing with this, but in some ways sponsoring it. This is why the desperate petition to Rome for a real Inquisition, carried out under the auspices of what is now the Holy Office.
While Christendom in Europe swept away paganism, in many cases, it did not destroy it, just drove it and its practices underground. In many parts of Europe, even today, pagan practices have been integrated into the local practice of Christianity.
With the rise of official atheism in France, spreading outward through Europe, eroding national churches already in decline, it is no surprise that pagan beliefs are again returning to the fore.
Likewise, heterodoxy and outright heresy, in some cases arising from within the church itself.
Speaking of "maniacal":
The Cathars spent much of 1209 fending off the crusaders.
The Béziers army attempted a sortie but was quickly defeated, then pursued by the crusaders back through the gates and into the city.
Arnaud-Amaury, the Cistercian abbot-commander, is supposed to have been asked how to tell Cathars from Catholics.
His reply, recalled by Caesar of Heisterbach, a fellow Cistercian, thirty years later was 'Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.'—'Kill them all, the Lord will recognise His own.'[53][54]
The doors of the church of St Mary Magdalene were broken down and the refugees dragged out and slaughtered.
Reportedly, 7,000 people died there.
Elsewhere in the town many more thousands were mutilated and killed.
Prisoners were blinded, dragged behind horses, and used for target practice.[55]
What remained of the city was razed by fire.
Arnaud-Amaury wrote to Pope Innocent III, 'Today your Holiness, twenty thousand heretics were put to the sword, regardless of rank, age, or sex.'[56][57]"
In another report:
"An estimated 200,000 to 1,000,000 people were massacred during the crusade.[2][3]
The Albigensian Crusade also had a role in the creation and institutionalization of both the Dominican Order and the Medieval Inquisition. "
But at least there were no gas chambers, or crematoria, so it's all cool, right?
This was their only 'crime'...I have no doubt (along with many historians) the charges against these Christians was fabricated by the Catholic religion to keep Catholics from seeking out the Albigensians...
The crimes of ALL heretics to the Catholic religion are posted in the first paragraph here...
The Albigensians are equated by the Catholic religion as being the forerunners of Protestantism as well as immorality, sexual perversion and all the ills of the world...The nasty Protestants...
If I had lived back then, I proudly would have been an Albigensian...
bttt
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