The Albigensians: Their Origins and the Action of the Church in the 12th Century

that began: in the 3rd century, within a different society, the declining Roman society; it continued secretly but truly, aided by the barbarian invasions, for a period of eight hundred years, only to reappear with a new intensity in the Albigensian heresy; it finally met its end against the ramparts of the Church of God, then governed by the great and immortal Pope Innocent III.

Medieval historians and theologians who discussed the Albigensians gave them the name of Manichaeans Followers of Manichaeism, a major dualist religion originating in Persia that taught a struggle between a good spiritual world of light and an evil material world of darkness., with a consistency that inevitably catches the historian's attention.

Indeed, we believe that the Albigensians were simply dualistsBelievers in two opposing ultimate principles, such as good and evil or spirit and matter, rather than a single all-powerful God.. The state of religion and customs in Languedoc society during the 12th century favored their growth in our regions, where they spread with surprising speed. Having grown so numerous as to become a multitude, they dared to try and seize political power in the MidiThe traditional name for the southern regions of France., appearing under the seductive guise of religious reformers. The similarity between Albigensian and Manichaean doctrines, despite some differences