CATHARISM

The Cathar doctrine was based on a double principle of duality : Good and Evil; Spiritual and Material.
The soul is the creature of the Good God, whilst the human body and the material world around it are the work of the Evil God.

Cathars distinguished three essential elements : the Body, the Soul and the Spirit .
A person who escapes from Satan, present in the visible world of matter, becomes a "Parfait" and receives the sacrament of the "Consolamentum". Other people are reincarnated until they attain this perfection.

The major principles of life for a Cathar can be resumed as follows :

- do not have possessions
- do not kill
- do not eat meat
- live a simple life.

Catharism gained a firm hold in the Languedoc during the 12th century.
From 1208 onwards, the Pope and the French king joined forces to combat this doctrine which brought their powers into question. The Dominicans or Preaching Brothers were entrusted with the Inquisition.
At the Council of Toulouse in 1229 , the prelates drafted 45 canons with a view to punishing the "heretics". 

Repression was severe, and many were burnt at the stake throughout the region : most notably in Béziers, Lavaur and Montségur .
More than a million people died in the Languedoc. This region, until then virtually independent, was reduced to a state that enabled it to be annexed to the French Crown. The deep-seated hatred stored up against the Church paved the way for Protestantism, leading to more wars, more persecution and more suffering.