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Catharism (; from the Greek: , ''katharoi'', "the pure ()")〔.〕 was a Christian dualist movement that thrived in some areas of Southern Europe, particularly northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. Cathar beliefs varied between communities because Catharism was initially taught by ascetic priests who had set few guidelines. The Catholic Church denounced its practices and dismissed it as "the Church of Satan". Catharism had its roots in the Paulician movement in Armenia and eastern Byzantine Anatolia and the Bogomils of the First Bulgarian Empire,〔''The Cathars'', Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe, ed. Edward Peters, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980), 108.〕 who were influenced by the Paulicians resettled in Thrace (Philipopolis) by the Byzantines. Though the term "Cathar" () has been used for centuries to identify the movement, whether the movement identified itself with this name is debatable. In Cathar texts, the terms "Good Men" (''Bons Hommes'') or "Good Christians" are the common terms of self-identification. The idea of two Gods or principles, one being good and the other evil, was central to Cathar beliefs. The good God was the God of the New Testament and the creator of the spiritual realm, contrasted with the evil Old Testament God—the creator of the physical world whom many Cathars, and particularly their persecutors, identified as Satan. All visible matter, including the human body, was created by this evil god; it was therefore tainted with sin. This was the antithesis to the monotheistic Catholic Church, whose fundamental principle was that there was only one God who created all things visible and invisible.〔See: Nicene Creed〕 Cathars thought human spirits were the genderless spirits of angels trapped within the physical creation of the evil god, cursed to be reincarnated until the Cathar faithful achieved salvation through a ritual called the consolamentum. From the beginning of his reign, Pope Innocent III attempted to end Catharism by sending missionaries and by persuading the local authorities to act against them. However, in 1208 Innocent's papal legate Pierre de Castelnau was murdered while returning to Rome after excommunicating Count Raymond VI of Toulouse, who, in his view, was too lenient with the Cathars. Pope Innocent III then abandoned the option of sending Catholic missionaries and jurists, declared Pierre de Castelnau a martyr and launched the Albigensian Crusade. ==Origins== The origins of the Cathars' beliefs are unclear but most theories agree they came from the Byzantine Empire mostly by the trade routes and spread from the First Bulgarian Empire to the Netherlands. The name of Bulgarians (''Bougres'') was also applied to the Albigenses, and they maintained an association with the similar Christian movement of the Bogomils ("Friends of God") of Thrace. "That there was a substantial transmission of ritual and ideas from Bogomilism to Catharism is beyond reasonable doubt." Their doctrines have numerous resemblances to those of the Bogomils and the Paulicians, who influenced them, as well as the earlier Marcionites, who were found in the same areas as the Paulicians, the Manicheans and the Christian Gnostics of the first few centuries AD, although, as many scholars, most notably Mark Pegg, have pointed out, it would be erroneous to extrapolate direct, historical connections based on theoretical similarities perceived by modern scholars. St John Damascene, writing in the 8th century AD, also notes of an earlier sect called the "Cathari", in his book ''On Heresies'', taken from the epitome provided by Epiphanius of Salamis in his ''Panarion''. He says of them: "They absolutely reject those who marry a second time, and reject the possibility of penance (is, forgiveness of sins after baptism )". These are probably the same Cathari who are mentioned in Canon 8 of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in the year 325, which states "...()f those called Cathari come over (the faith ), let them first make profession that they are willing to communicate (full communion ) with the twice-married, and grant pardon to those who have lapsed..." It is likely that we have only a partial view of their beliefs, because the writings of the Cathars were mostly destroyed because of the doctrinal threat perceived by the Papacy; much of our existing knowledge of the Cathars is derived from their opponents. Conclusions about Cathar ideology continue to be fiercely debated with commentators regularly accusing their opponents of speculation, distortion and bias. There are a few texts from the Cathars themselves which were preserved by their opponents (the ''Rituel Cathare de Lyon'') which give a glimpse of the inner workings of their faith, but these still leave many questions unanswered. One large text which has survived, ''The Book of Two Principles'' (''Liber de duobus principiis''), elaborates the principles of dualistic theology from the point of view of some of the Albanenses Cathars. It is now generally agreed by most scholars that identifiable historical Catharism did not emerge until at least 1143, when the first confirmed report of a group espousing similar beliefs is reported being active at Cologne by the cleric Eberwin of Steinfeld.〔See especially R.I. Moore's ''The Origins of European Dissent'', and the collection of essays ''Heresy and the Persecuting Society in the Middle Ages: Essays on the Work of R.I. Moore'' for a consideration of the origins of the Cathars, and proof against identifying earlier heretics in the West, such as those identified in 1025 at Monforte, outside Milan, as being Cathars. Also see ''Heresies of the High Middle Ages'', a collection of pertinent documents on Western heresies of the High Middle Ages, edited by Walter Wakefield and Austin P. Evans.〕 A landmark in the "institutional history" of the Cathars was the Council, held in 1167 at Saint-Félix-Lauragais, attended by many local figures and also by the Bogomil ''papa'' Nicetas, the Cathar bishop of (northern) France and a leader of the Cathars of Lombardy. The Cathars were largely a homegrown, Western European/Latin Christian phenomenon, springing up in the Rhineland cities (particularly Cologne) in the mid-12th century, northern France around the same time, and particularly southern France — the Languedoc — and the northern Italian cities in the mid-late 12th century. In the Languedoc and northern Italy, the Cathars attained their greatest popularity, surviving in the Languedoc, in much reduced form, up to around 1325 and in the Italian cities until the Inquisitions of the 1260s–1300s finally rooted them out.〔See Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie's ''Montaillou: the Promised Land of Error'' for a respected analysis of the social context of these last French Cathars, and ''Power and Purity'' by Carol Lansing for a consideration of 13th-century Catharism in Orvieto.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Catharism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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