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- Medieval Latin `the pure' member of a sect in
- medieval Europe usually numbered among the
- Christian heretics. Influenced by
- Manichaeism, they started about the 10th
- century in the Balkans where they were called
- `Bogomils', spread to SW Europe where they
- were often identified with the Albigenses,
- and by the middle of the 14th century had
- been destroyed or driven underground by the
- Inquisition. The Cathars believed that this
- world is under the domination of Satan, and
- men and women are the terrestrial embodiment
- of spirits who were inspired by him to revolt
- and were driven out of heaven. At death, the
- soul will be reincarnated (whether in human
- or animal form) unless it has been united
- through the Cathar faith with Christ. For
- someone who has become a Cathar, death brings
- release, the Beatific Vision, and immortality
- in Christ's presence. Baptism with the spirit
- - the consolamentum - was the central rite,
- believed to remedy the disaster of the Fall.
- The spirit received was the Paraclete, the
- Comforter, and it was imparted by imposition
- of hands. The Believers, or Credentes, could
- approach God only through the Perfect (the
- ordained priesthood), who were implicitly
- obeyed in everything, and lived lives of the
- strictest self-denial and chastity.
-
