The name originates from the end of the 12th C, and was used in 1181 by the chronicler [Geoffroy de Vigeois]?. The name refers to the southern town of Albi? (the ancient Albiga.) The designation is hardly exact, for the heretical centre was at Toulouse? and in the neighbouring districts.
The heresy, which had entered these regions by following the trade routes, came originally from eastern Europe. The name of Bulgarians? (Bougres) was also applied to the Albigenses, and they maintained an association with the Bogomil?s of Thrace?. Their doctrines have numerous resemblances to those of the Bogomils, and still more to those of the Paulicians?, with whom they are sometimes connected. It is difficult to form any precise idea of the Albigensian doctrines, as all the existing knowledge of them is derived from their opponents, and the few texts from the Albigenses (the Rituel cathare de Lyon and the Nouveau Testament en provencal) contain very little information concerning their beliefs and moral practices. What is certain is that they formed an anti-sacerdotal party in opposition to the Roman church, and raised a continued protest against the corruption of the clergy. The Albigensian theologians, called Cathari or perfecti (in France bons hommes or bons chretiens) were few in number; the mass of believers (credentes) were not initiated into the doctrine at all - they were freed from all moral prohibition and all religious obligation, on condition that they promised by an act called convenenza to become "hereticized" by receiving the consolamentum, the baptism of the Spirit, before their death.
The first Catharist heretics appeared in Limousin? between 1012 and 1020. Several were discovered and put to death at Toulouse? in 1022. The synods of Charroux (Vienne) in 1028 and Toulouse in 1056, condemned the growing sect. Preachers were summoned to the districts of the Agenais and the Toulousain to combat the heretical propaganda in the 100s. But, protected by William, duke of Aquitaine?, and by a significant proportion of the southern nobility, the heretics gained ground in the south. The people were impressed by the bons hommes, and the anti-sacerdotal preaching of Peter of Bruys and Henry of Lausanne in Perigord.
In 1147 Pope Eugene III sent a legate to the affected district. The few isolated successes of the abbot of Clairvaux could not obscure the poor results of this mission, and well shows the power of the sect in the south of France at that period. The missions of Cardinal Peter (of St Chrysogonus) to Toulouse and the Toulousain in 1178, and of Henry, cardinal-bishop of Albano, in 1180-1181, obtained merely momentary successes. Even when Henry of Albano led an armed expedition and took the stronghold of heretics at Lavaur, this in no way arrested the progress of the heresy.
The persistent decisions of the councils against the heretics at this period - in particular, those of the council of Tours? (1163) and of the Third Council of the Lateran (1179) - had scarcely more effect. But when he came to power in 1198 Pope Innocent III resolved to suppress the Albigenses. At first he tried pacific conversion, and sent into the affected regions a number of legates. They had to contend not only with the heretics, the nobles who protected them, and the people who venerated them, but also with the bishops of the district, who rejected the extraordinary authority which the pope had conferred upon his legates. In 1204 Innocent III suspended the authority of the bishops of the south of France. Peter of Castelnau retaliated by excommunicating the count of Toulouse, as an abettor of heresy (1207). As soon as he heard of the murder of Peter of Castelnau, the pope ordered his legates to preach the crusade against the Albigenses. This implacable war, which threw the whole of the nobility of the north of France against that of the south. This ended in the treaty of Paris (1229), by which the king of France dispossessed the house of Toulouse of the greater part of its fiefs, and that of Beziers of the whole of its fiefs. The independence of the princes of the south was at an end, but, so far as the heresy was concerned, Albigensianism was not extinguished, in spite of the wholesale massacres of heretics during the war.
The Inquisition, however, operating unremittingly in the south at Toulouse, Albi, Carcassonne and other towns during the whole of the 13th century and a great part of the 14th, succeeded in crushing the heresy. The repressive measures were terrible, in 1245 the royal officers assisting the Inquisition seized the heretical citadel of Montsegur, and 200 Cathari were burned in one day. Moreover, the church decreed severe chastisement against all laymen suspected of sympathy with the heretics (council of Narbonne?, 1235; [Bull Ad extirpanda]?, 1252).
Hunted down by the Inquisition and abandoned by the nobles of the district, the Albigenses became more and more scattered, hiding in the forests and mountains, and only meeting surreptitiously. The people made some attempts to throw off the yoke of the Inquisition and the French, and insurrections broke out under the leadership of [Bernard of Foix]?, [Aimerv of Narbonne]?, and [Bernard Delicieux]? at the beginning of the 14th century. But at this point vast inquests were set on foot by the Inquisition, which terrorized the district. Precise indications of these are found in the registers of the Inquisitors, [Bernard of Caux]?, [Jean de St Pierre]?, [Geoffroy d'Ablis]?, and others. The sect was exhausted and could find no more adepts and after 1330 the records of the Inquisition contain few proceedings against Catharists.
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