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

to clarify the question of the origins of the Albi-
gensians, and some chapters will be dedicated
to recounting the developments of the new
dualist sect.

But we will be careful not to pass over in
silence the action of the Church, which holds the deposit of
faith and is the guardian of souls against
the enemies of salvation and truth. The struggle
in which the Church had to engage starting
from the 11th century, took a triple form: peaceful
at first, then armed with the sword of battle
and of justice; it was always worthy of the
divine mission of the Bride of ChristA theological title for the Christian Church, emphasizing its union with Jesus and its role in salvation., which is
to extend the sacred limits of the empire of good
and virtue. We do not propose
to recount the entire history of
this long struggle today; we simply
follow the LegatesOfficial representatives of the Pope who were granted high authority to act on his behalf in specific regions. and the Missionaries,
reserving for later our entry into the noise of
battles and our attendance at the legal proceedings,
to study the Crusade and the
Albigensian InquisitionA formal ecclesiastical court established in the early 13th century to investigate and suppress heresy in Languedoc.. We seek the causes that
facilitated the work of destruction and
revolt for neo-ManichaeismA term used by medieval authors to describe the Albigensians, suggesting they were modern followers of the 3rd-century prophet Mani, who taught that the physical world was evil.. We hide
none of them, and if we have said everything about the disorders
of the 11th and 12th centuries in pages that perhaps