Cathars (Albigensians)

Leaders

• Nicetas (Papa Niquinta)
• Guilhabert de Castres
• Bertrand Marty
• Nazarius (Concorezzo)
• John of Lugio (Desenzano; Book of the Two Principles circle)
• Pierre and Guillaume Authié (revival c. 1300)
• Guillaume Bélibaste (last known perfect in Languedoc, burned 1321)

Beliefs

Cathars taught a dualism, either absolute (two eternal principles) or moderate (a fallen Satan), in which the material world was not created by the good God. The only sacrament was the consolamentum, a laying-on of hands given to the 'perfect' and to the dying. They rejected Catholic sacraments and clergy. The perfect lived lives of strict poverty, celibacy, fasting and vegetarianism, and the 'believers' (credentes) supported them.

Home bases

• Cologne (first report of "Cathar"-type dualists, 1143)

  Cologne, Germany · 12th

  Eberwin, provost of Steinfeld, wrote to Bernard of Clairvaux about heretics tried in Cologne in 1143, some of whom were burned. They claimed a hidden church going back to apostolic times, with 'elect' and 'hearers' and a laying on of hands. Ekbert of Schönau first used the name 'Cathari' in Cologne sermons of 1163.

  

• Saint-Félix-Lauragais (Cathar council, 1167?)

  Saint-Félix-Lauragais, France · 12th

  A 'council' of Cathar bishops is said to have met here under Nicetas (Papa Niquinta) from Constantinople. It supposedly founded or confirmed bishoprics of Toulouse, Carcassonne and Albi and taught absolute dualism. The account survives only in a 1660 printed copy of a charter.

  

• Albi (name-giver to the "Albigensians")

  Albi, France · 12th–13th

  Albi gave its name to the 'Albigensian' heretics and the crusade against them, although Toulouse and the Lauragais were more important centres. Albi had a Cathar bishop from the 1160s. The fortress-like Catholic cathedral of Sainte-Cécile, begun in 1282, is read as a statement of Catholic victory.

  

• Béziers (massacre of 1209)

  Béziers, France · 13th

  On 22 July 1209 the crusader army of the Albigensian Crusade sacked Béziers and killed much of the population, Catholic and Cathar alike. Caesarius of Heisterbach later attributed the phrase 'Kill them all; God will know his own' to the legate Arnaud Amalric.

  

• Montségur (fall of 1244)

  Montségur, France · 13th

  This mountaintop castle was a refuge and seat of the Cathar church from 1232. After a ten-month siege it surrendered in March 1244, and about 200 perfecti who refused to recant were burned below the walls. The visible ruins are a later royal fortress built on the site.

  

• Concorezzo (moderate-dualist Cathar church)

  Concorezzo, Italy · 12th–13th

  This village near Milan gave its name to the largest Italian Cathar church, which held a 'moderate' dualism (one supreme God, with Satan as a fallen creature). Its bishop Nazarius was said to have received the Interrogatio Iohannis (Secret Supper) from Bulgaria.

  

• Sirmione (last great Italian Cathar refuge, 1276)

  Sirmione, Italy · 13th

  Italian Cathar churches (the Albanenses of Desenzano, the Concorezzo group and others) outlasted Languedoc's. In 1276 the Scaliger lords of Verona captured about 170 Cathars at Sirmione on Lake Garda, and they were burned in the Verona arena in 1278.

  

Spread

The Rhineland, Champagne and Flanders, and above all Languedoc and northern and central Italy (Lombardy, Tuscany, the Veneto), with organized dioceses from the 1160s. They were linked to Balkan dualist churches.

Books

• Book of the Two Principles (Liber de duobus principiis)
• Occitan Cathar Ritual (Lyon), with Occitan New Testament
• Latin Cathar Ritual (Florence)
• Dublin Occitan Cathar ritual and treatise
• Interrogatio Iohannis (Secret Supper; Liber Sancti Iohannis)
• Inquisition Register of Jacques Fournier (Montaillou depositions)

What happened to it

The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229), the Inquisition (from 1233), the fall of Montségur (1244) and Italian campaigns (Sirmione 1276) destroyed the movement. A brief Pyrenean revival around 1300 ended with Bélibaste's burning in 1321. Some historians (R. I. Moore, M. Pegg) argue that the idea of a unified 'Cathar church' is partly a construction of its persecutors, and this is disputed.

Hostile sources

• Eberwin of Steinfeld. Letter to Bernard of Clairvaux 1143

  Hostile.

• Rainerius Sacconi. Summa de Catharis 1250

  Hostile ex-insider.

• Moneta of Cremona. Adversus Catharos et Valdenses c. 1241

  Hostile.

• Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay. Historia Albigensis c. 1218

  Hostile crusade chronicle.

• Jacques Fournier (inquisitor). Register (Vatican Library, Vat. lat. 4030) 1318–1325

  Hostile record of many first-person depositions.

Their own words

• Italian Cathar (circle of John of Lugio). Book of the Two Principles (Liber de duobus principiis) c. 1230–1250

  Insider.

• Cathar church. Occitan Ritual (Lyon); Latin Ritual (Florence); Dublin Occitan ritual 13th c.

  Insider.

• Bogomil source. Interrogatio Iohannis 12th c.

  Insider.

Sources

• CathariConfessional source

  Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 (confessional). Accessed 2026-11-11.

• AlbigensesConfessional source

  Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 (confessional). Accessed 2026-11-11.

• Catharism

  Wikipedia. Accessed 2026-11-11.