Spitting in the face of God

The lethal persecution of the Cathars takes us into the territory of true evil, says Quentin de la Bedoyere
. God's Heretics, The Albigensian Crusade by Aubrey Burl, Sutton Publishing £20
Catholics who are in a breast-beating mood do not find it hard to identify aspects of their history of which they feel ashamed. The choice is wide: corruption in the Renaissance papacy, overt and covert anti-Semitism, an unhealthy tendency to deceit and concealment, ingenious casuistry all spring readily to mind. Yet each of these, though not excusable, is comprehensible and perhaps to be expected in a society with an imperfect human face. But the Albigensian Crusade, followed by the Inquisition, seems to me to break the boundaries of perfidy and take us into territories of evil which are difficult to reconcile with the Church of God.
The Albigensian heresy, taking its name from Albi in southern France. had a long history, finding its roots in Persian Manicheistn. It was the heresy of the opposing principles of good and evil. The physical world was a manifestation of the latter and the "Perfects", as the graduate devotees were known, abstained from human generation and led lives of great asceticism. The "Believers", a much larger number, were not so strict but accepted the same principles and carried them out in lesser ways. In the 12th and 13th century they were prevalent in the Languedoc region of France, where they lived cheek by jowl with orthodox Catholics and were tolerated and even encouraged by local lords. They did no apparent harm and, despite their theological heterodoxy. appeared to be peace loving and often, in their personal lives, inspiring people.
Initially the Church worked by condemnation and persuasion, sending missions to preach against the Cathars (which was their technically correct name). but these made little progress and eventually Innocent III, spitting in the face of God, resorted to force. The Crusade, led by papal legates, was a shameful progress of bloody slaughter in which neither women nor children were spared, and which, over a number of years, mercilessly destroyed towns and fortresses throughout the Languedoc. In 1233 the formal Inquisition was set up. to be followed by many years of investigation using methods well known in modern times: suspects saving their skins by informing on other suspects, anonymous accusation and torture. The smell of burning flesh rising from their execution pyres could not have been an odour pleasing to the Lord. Even Catholic contemporaries confessed their admiration for the steadfastness of the Cathars when facing hostile tribunals and death at the stake.
It does not seem adequate to say that these were brutal times in which such measures were part of the culture, nor does the inevitable admixture of politics (as in Ulster today) excuse a lethal persecution carried out in the name of religious orthodoxy. The Church of the 13th century could read the message of the New Testament then as it can today, and its vocation, guided by the Spirit was, and remains, to rise above the customs of the time and bear witness to the law of love and justice. At one stage the Cathars were obliged to sew yellow crosses to their garments (does that remind you of anything?). Perhaps we Catholics should wear yellow crosses today to remind us of our shame. And when we encounter fundamentalist religious terrorism, are we well placed to cast the first stone?
Aubrey Burl is plainly, if not surprisingly, on the side of the Cathars; but there is a temptation to forget that dualistic religions, while explaining so neatly the presence of evil in the world, are inherently dangerous. Their animus against breeding (which obliged the divine spark to be entrapped in the foulness of the physical) extended even to the breeding of animals. Those who were married were dissuaded from carnal intercourse, and it is not surprising that Cathars were widely believed to substitute perverse forms of sexual expression. The spread of the medieval sect from the Bulgars gave rise to the coinage of a robust old English word. Universal application of the principle of non-generation would necessarily have ended the human race. This would have been welcomed by the Cathars who regarded suicide as a bizarre form of avoiding occasions of sin. At a deeper theological level, they denied the inherent sacredness of God's creation. It was an irony that their opponents, in slaughtering them, denied the sacredness of that part of God's creation which was made in his image and Likeness.
Bml has written an excellent book which not only takes us exhaustively through the scandalous events but gives us a lively picture of the culture and the times. We have many quotations from the troubadours, whose songs of courtly Jove without carnal consummation gave poetic voice to the movement. And we enjoy a strong sense of place and atmosphere because he has explored the region in detail; his calf muscles must be in good fettle after climbing so many slopes to explore the ruins of the fortresses. It strikes me that. since the Holy Land seems an unwise place for pilgrimage at the moment, one might go instead to the countryside of the Albigensians, and explore it, at least metaphorically, on penitential knees. Take this book with you.