One is lead to belive that Christ taught the value of Perfection, Poverty and Preaching.
For precisely following the same, entire population was wiped out, towns destroyed and people were suffocated to death by closing the mouth of Caves where they hid from the marauding Crusaders ordered by Pope Innocent III.
As is usual, the Crusade was more about political power, as it was when Constantine had the Old Testament compiled,
“The medieval Christian sect of the Cathars, against whom the crusade was directed, originated from a reform movement within the Bogomil churches of Dalmatia and Bulgaria calling for a return to the Christian message of perfection, poverty and preaching. Their theology was basically dualist.[1] They became known as the Albigensians, because there were many adherents in the city of Albi and the surrounding area in the 12th and 13th centuries…
Perceived irreligious.
When one reads the Bible, one will be struck by two facts.
1.Though the Bible talks about the Father, of whose son is Jesus,, there only limited references to HIs attributes, the rest being devoted to Christ.
2.The concept Satan, who is reported to be constantly engaged in fight with the forces of evil and at times threatens to dethrone God andit takes a supreme effort from God to wrest the initiative from Satan.
Satan is portrayed as Evil,has the power of ranting every one your wishes, provided you align your soul to him.
And those who follow Satan are doomed to Hell.
One of my acquaintances asked me that if what is being granted by Satan is demanded by Man and all one has to do is to give himself to Satan, then Christ also recommends the same, by offering the Kingdom of Heaven in return for one’s adherence to Christianity as propounded by Jesus.
Then why not follow Satan?
Seems logical, strictly from the point of Logic and common sense.
This is the dichotomy one faces when one ascribes dual realities, one limiting and interfering with another.
The Cathars had a different approach though it had the same Christian element.
“The general view of the theology of the Cathars is that they were dualistic, believing in two equal and comparable transcendental principles; God, the force of good, and Satan, or the demiurge, that of evil. They held that the physical world was evil and created by this demiurge Rex Mundi (Latin, “King of the World”), who encompassed all that was corporeal, chaotic and powerful. Their understanding of God was entirely disincarnate: a being or principle of pure spirit and completely unsullied by the taint of matter. He was the god of love, order and peace. Jesus was an angel with only a phantom body, and the accounts of him in the New Testament were to be understood allegorically. As the physical world and the human body was the creation of the evil principle, sexual abstinence (even in marriage) was encouraged. Civil authority had no claim on a Cathar, since this was the rule of the physical world. The goal of a Cathar was to become perfect. Cathar missionaries would point out examples of clerical immorality and would contrast that behaviour with the uprightness of their own actions. They took special attention to point out the grievances the people of the south received from the French kings, and exalted a local sense of nationalism and independence. Thus, the religious movement moved into the political arena. Both church and state were deeply concerned at the spread of Cathar teachings and its developments.”
A religion which talks of Tolerance Human values and a Religion of Peace?
Suspended by genitals.
During the siege of Toulouse in 1217-18, captured crusaders could expect to have their eyes put out, their tongues removed, to be dragged behind horses, stoned, dropped from the ramparts, or drowned with mill-stones around their necks. According to Malcolm Barbour ‘In 1212, Roger Bernard, the count’s son, captured some crusaders near Narbonne, took them back to Foix, where he and his men spent their time devising “new and original tortures” for them including suspension by their gen
The first military leader appointed by Pope Innocent III to head his Holy Army was a Cistercias abbot called Arnaud Amaury. The first significant engagement of the war was at Béziers when it was besieged on 22 July 1209. Catholic inhabitants remained in the city and when the Abbot was asked how to tell Cathars from Catholics, he replied, “Kill them all, the Lord will recognise His own.” The doors of the churches and cathedral were broken down and the refugees dragged out and slaughtered. All over the town people were massacred in their thousands. Prisoners were blinded, dragged behind horses, and used for target practice. The city was burned. At that time the population of Béziers was around 5,000, but local refugees seeking shelter within the city walls increased the number to 20,000. All were killed regardless of rank, age, sex or religious belief.
During the Albigensian crusade period, often described as the first act of genocide in Europe, many castles and other fortified positio
Citation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albigensian_Crusade#Massacre_at_B.C3.A9ziers
http://bedejournal.blogspot.in/2011/11/pinker-tackles-albigensian-crusade.html
http://www.ab-real-estate.com/newsletters/nl40/cathar-history.php
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