When I was researching A Song of Songs: Mary Magdalene Awakes in the Languedoc area of France in 2004, I was struck by how frightened the Catholic church was by the Cathars, a sect that in the 12th and 13th centuries they deemed "heretical", so much so that they exterminated an entire society to have their congregants return to the church.
Dominic De Guzman, known as Saint Dominic now I believe, hated them more than most and formed his order, the Dominicans, in direct response to the threat that he felt they were issuing against the church.
To put things into perspective, the Catholic Church at the time was in a state of decay and heightened debauchery: there was sexual profligacy among the clergy, along with gluttony, avarice, and overt homosexuality. Bishops and cardinals had male and female lovers, they lived in gilded palaces and exacted heavy taxes on their followers, often withholding last rites if these were not paid.
The Cathars, or Pure Ones, were disgusted by this and left the church to preach a simple form of Christianity, Gnostic in its inclinations. They taught that one did not need a priest or a mediator to approach God, individual revelation was more important. They eschewed the debauchery of the church and lived simple, frugal lives. People left the church in droves to follow them.
The church was alarmed by the decline in their numbers (and revenue) and branded the Cathars as heretics. Dominic de Guzman quickly realized that the way to meet the Cathars head on was to develop an order that emulated their piety, their poverty and their concern for the poor so as to attract the people back into the church.
Of course his zeal, and the subsequent zeal of his order, spawned the creation of the Medieval Inquisition whose diabolical methods of torture and cruelty were later enthusiastically emulated by the Nazis, among others.
In 1233 Pope Gregory IX put the Dominicans in charge of exterminating the Cathars, and Saint Dominic himself was pretty good friends with one of the crusader commanders, Simon de Montfort, who took over the reins of the crusade, made up of the lowest and most despicable members of society, from Arnaud Almaric, head of the Cistercians, one of the leading monastic orders in Christendom at the time.
It was Almaric that orchestrated the massacre of 20,000 men, women and children in Beziers on July 22, 1209, the Feast Day of Saint Mary Magdalene, revered by the Gnostic Cathars as the wife of Jesus, and the true keeper of his teachings. All were put to the sword, none were spared, including 7,000 citizens who took refuge inside of the Church of Mary Magdalene. Many of the citizens were Catholic and when asked by his soldiers how they were to distinguish between the Catholics and the Cathars, Arnaud Almaric replied, "Kill them all, God will know his own."
History is fascinating in the lessons that it imparts.
Dominic De Guzman, known as Saint Dominic now I believe, hated them more than most and formed his order, the Dominicans, in direct response to the threat that he felt they were issuing against the church.
To put things into perspective, the Catholic Church at the time was in a state of decay and heightened debauchery: there was sexual profligacy among the clergy, along with gluttony, avarice, and overt homosexuality. Bishops and cardinals had male and female lovers, they lived in gilded palaces and exacted heavy taxes on their followers, often withholding last rites if these were not paid.
The Cathars, or Pure Ones, were disgusted by this and left the church to preach a simple form of Christianity, Gnostic in its inclinations. They taught that one did not need a priest or a mediator to approach God, individual revelation was more important. They eschewed the debauchery of the church and lived simple, frugal lives. People left the church in droves to follow them.
The church was alarmed by the decline in their numbers (and revenue) and branded the Cathars as heretics. Dominic de Guzman quickly realized that the way to meet the Cathars head on was to develop an order that emulated their piety, their poverty and their concern for the poor so as to attract the people back into the church.
Of course his zeal, and the subsequent zeal of his order, spawned the creation of the Medieval Inquisition whose diabolical methods of torture and cruelty were later enthusiastically emulated by the Nazis, among others.
In 1233 Pope Gregory IX put the Dominicans in charge of exterminating the Cathars, and Saint Dominic himself was pretty good friends with one of the crusader commanders, Simon de Montfort, who took over the reins of the crusade, made up of the lowest and most despicable members of society, from Arnaud Almaric, head of the Cistercians, one of the leading monastic orders in Christendom at the time.
It was Almaric that orchestrated the massacre of 20,000 men, women and children in Beziers on July 22, 1209, the Feast Day of Saint Mary Magdalene, revered by the Gnostic Cathars as the wife of Jesus, and the true keeper of his teachings. All were put to the sword, none were spared, including 7,000 citizens who took refuge inside of the Church of Mary Magdalene. Many of the citizens were Catholic and when asked by his soldiers how they were to distinguish between the Catholics and the Cathars, Arnaud Almaric replied, "Kill them all, God will know his own."
History is fascinating in the lessons that it imparts.