Who Were They?
The Cathari
Colossians 1:9-14
9For this cause we also, since the day we heard it,
do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye
might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all
wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10That ye
might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in
the knowledge of God; 11Strengthened with all
might, according to his glorious power, unto all
patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
12Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made
us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the
saints in light: 13Who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness, and hath translated us into the
kingdom of his dear Son: 14In whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins:
We again return to the work of Pastor Oldfield.
[Oldfield]
From day one, fallen Christendom has been trying
to blend two opposing kingdoms – Christ’s and the
world. The ages-old idea of a homogenous
society was once again in people’s minds.
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When Constantine became emperor, claiming the
banner of the cross, that goal obtained a certain
degree success. By law there was only one approved
religion – the Alexandrian version of Christianity.
It became illegal to worship any god but the
corrupted version of Christ. And so, the Romanized
churches
began filling
with
pagans wearing
crucifixes (so to speak). But with so many
unregenerated church people, Christianity became a
sham. Multitudes, both from the laity and
priesthood, made little effort to live like the
Christians they professed to be. And reaction to that
worldliness and heresy was a part of the rise and
growth of each of the groups which we’ve already
addressed – the Montanists, Donatists, and
Paulicians. One of the terms thrown against those
people, and one which I’ve mentioned several times
was “Cathari.” As J.T. Christian says, “On account
of the purity of their lives (and doctrines) they were
called Cathari, that is, the pure.” On your “Trail of
Blood” charts, you can see that word, linking and
over-lapping the other names.
The Bible
teaches us
to baptize
only those
who “bring forth fruits mete (or worthy) of
repentance.” And we hear exhortations like – “If ye
then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are
above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on
the earth.” Then there is exhortation after
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exhortation like what we just read from Colossians
1. Paul commanded the Thessalonians, “I therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with
all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering,
forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The
Christian life is not just an improved worldly life –
it is entirely different. “Know ye not that the
friendship of the world is enmity with God?
whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is
the enemy of God.” But there was growing branch
of Christendom which was openly trying to draw
the unconverted world into union with itself. In
time, it was using infant baptism to bring the lost
into its fold. It was exchanging sacramentalism for
salvation by God’s grace. It was making the
priesthood a vocation, rather than the ministry of
God. It was creating a new rule over the people –
blending religion with secular government.
In response to the slide of Christendom there were
a few rocks in the stream – the churches of
Montanus, and the Novatians and Donatists. They
were churches of a different kind, firmly planted on
the foundation stones of Christ and the Bible. And as
the Alexandrian churches rushed past them
downhill, they
stood
out like
rocks
in
the
stream… Eventually those Romanized Alexandrian
churches
began
to call
the
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fundamentalists – “heretics.” The word originally
meant only that here was a person who made a
choice. Here was someone who took a deliberate
and premeditated stand. But it came to mean – a
rebel – an individual who was too stupid to agree
with the majority. God’s people since the 3rd century
have often been unjustly called “heretics.” Then in
its
digression,
the
state
religion
began
throwing other names at God’s people. They
were meant to cut and wound, when in fact
sometimes they accurately hit the nail on its head.
Have you ever been called something like “a goody
goody” or even a “goody two shoes?” Most people
have no idea where that term originated. It arose in
1765 when John Newbery published a children’s
story supposedly written by Oliver Goldsmith. It is
the tale of a little girl who was so poor that she only
had one shoe. Somehow, she obtained a pair of new
shoes, and she dashed around to all her poor friends,
exclaiming “two shoes, two shoes.” Even though she
was the same little girl she had always been, she
considered herself better than everyone else now that
she had two shoes. By the 3rd century, the people and
priests of the fallen churches began giving names to
those people who were trying to live as the Bible
taught them to live. They were “heretics” and they
were “purists” – people who were squeaky clean
– “Cathars” or “Cathari.” Robinson and others
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have said that all of the dissenters from the
2nd century on have at times been called “Cathari.”
But as the Dark Age developed the use that name
grew.
The Twelfth Century Cathari.
Remember from [a previous] lesson, the Paulicians
moved from Eastern Turkey into Eastern Europe
– Thrace. From there they migrated north into the
Balkans – Albania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania.
And as we mentioned, they popped up along the
Mediterranean in Southern France and Western
Italy. We aren’t merely talking about a race of
people but of a way of worship and a kind of
faith. These
strangers
brought
with
them
their “heresies,” like rejecting the authority of the
bishops and pope. They abhorred the worship of
idols,
and
they
rejected
the sacraments.
They practiced believers’ baptism and demanded
a regenerated church membership. Plus, they lived
and expected other professing believers to live holy
lives – they were “Cathari.”
But with that name we begin to get into muddy
waters, and a word of caution is necessary. Not
every person trying to live a pure and moral life is a
child of God.
Sometimes when I go to the grocery store , I will see
ladies in long plain dresses with five or six well-
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behaved, well-dressed children, and my first thought
is “Christian.” The truth is that there is a strict sect
of Roman Catholicism in Post Falls, and sometimes
that family I see is Catholic, worshiping Mary
instead
of
her
Son. Appearances
can
be
deceiving. Some people don’t drink because their
parents were alcoholics, and the weakness runs in the
family. Some people don’t smoke because they
know that it is a poison which will likely kill them.
Some people appear clean on the outside, but who
are still filthy at heart. Matthew 23:25 – “Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make
clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but
within
they
are
full
of
extortion
and
excess.” Some of the people who are described
as “Cathari” by the Catholics of the Middle Ages
were in fact Manicheans - people who believed in
the duality and warfare between good and evil. But,
says Verduin, “The basic error in the prevailing
representation is that when men hear the word
Cathar they straightway think of a gnostic sect,
where the more…honest of the medieval opponents
of the Cathars themselves distinguish very clearly
between two varieties. It is certainly an error to think
of dualism whenever one hears the word Cathar. The
term was borrowed from one situation and applied
to another – in an effort to discredit.” Some of the
Cathari of the Dark Ages were not worshipers and
followers of Christ but were trying to live moral sin-
free lives for the wrong reasons – Perhaps in order to
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earn salvation. In other words, “Cathari” is not to
be applied only to the children of God, so it should
be used with caution. And yet, it is often a word
perfectly suited to God’s people.
Verduin gives
another illustration
of
the
stereotyping which was applied during the Dark
Ages . For example, often in medieval times it was
said that heretics were of a pale complexion. There
was a medieval Catholic bishop who “when he
looked at men he could tell by their pallor whether
they had been to Waldensian conventicles.” This
ascription of paleness may have a very natural
explanation. What man, knowing himself to be
a “heretic” would not grow pale when an inquisitor
spoke to him, or even looked in this direction?
Moreover, the heretics spent a great deal of their time
in hiding, coming out mostly at night (for which
reason they were often called “turlupins” – wolf-
people). Verduin says, This cliche was extremely
tenacious; one may hear to this day in rural France
the expression : “white like an Huguenot.”
Some of the Cathari were also called Bogomiles.
Armitage quotes Herzog saying that they took their
name from a Bulgarian bishop of the 10th century.
The man was a Paulician who pastored a church
in Philippopolis. The Bogomiles were condemned as
heretics and suffered great persecution, because of
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their pure doctrine and pure living. Basil, one of their
leaders was burnt to death in Constantinople in 1118.
Gibbons suggests they came to southern France by
traveling up the Danube into German and then down.
By early in the 11th century, they were without doubt
settled in the Netherlands, in Orleans, France, and
Turin, Italy on the other side of the Piedmont
mountains. As such they played a role in the faith of
the Waldensians in Italy and the Albigenses in
France. When the Bogomiles were driven out of
Bulgaria they traveled to Northern Europe –
Champagne and Flanders. Their followers became
so numerous that the Catholics called for councils at
Toulouse and Tours in order to further condemn
them. But despite their excommunications and
curses, Armitage says that they grew so mighty that
they had a council of their own in 1167 at which
time they clearly declared their faith in Christ and
condemned the hierarchy and secular power of
Rome.
The name “Petrobrussian” is also associated with the
Cathari.
In about the year 1110 in the southern French
provinces of Languedoc and Provence, Peter de
Bruys was heard preaching the gospel of Christ. It is
said that he had been a priest in Toulouse, but God
gave him wisdom to see the sins of Catholicism, so
he began to consult with the Albigenses. He
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too condemned the superstitions of the day and
exhorted faith and pure living among the believers.
For several years his ministry was abundantly
successful. Many awoke to put faith in the Lamb of
God. He was blessed by God to have
the protection of
a
powerful
nobleman
named Hildephonsus.
During
that
period the
Catholics were erecting magnificent temples filled
with gold and idols of the saints. Peter de Bruys
preached that “gold was not the means of building a
church, but rather of its destruction.”
One of de Bruys’ chief opponents was Peter the
Venerable, Abbot of Clugni. This second man wrote
a book in which he described his Cathari enemy. He
said that De Bruys held that the church was a
spiritual body composed of regenerated people. He
held that persons ought not to be baptized until they
came to the use of their reason. No one was
saved through the faith of another person, such as
babies through their godparents. He did not, as he
was accused, rebaptize those who had been baptized
as babies, because, he said, they were not baptized in
the first place. In regard to the Lord’s Supper, he not
only rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation, but
he denied that it was a sacrament.
In the year 1126, Peter de Bruys was seized by the
authorities and burnt to death. But immediately one
of his students arose to pick up his mantle and to
carry on – Henry of Lausanne. And later those who
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were
not
called “Petrobrussians” were
often
called “Henricians” descendants of the Cathari.
Henry was so powerful a preacher and yet at the
same time so humble and simple in his life, that the
Pope Eugene III send Bernard of Clairvaux to
destroy the effects of his ministry. Bernard would
become famous as the Pope’s primary heresy hunter
– truth destroyer. He described the effect of Henry’s
preaching,
saying
that
the churches
were
deserted, “the way of the children is closed, the
grace of baptism is refused them, and they are
hindered from coming to heaven.” Bernard saw to it
that Henry was condemned and brought before the
Council of Rheims after which he was imprisoned in
1148 and soon thereafter died.
Another of the Cathari groups were the Arnoldists.
Arnold of Brescia was born at the beginning of the
12th century and died about 1148. The Roman
Catholics described Arnold as “unsound in his
judgment about the sacraments of the altar and
infant baptism.” So, he was condemned by
the Lateran Council under Innocent II. The fourth
Lateran Council decreed that all rebaptizers should
be punished
with
death. Like
many
other
Cathari, Arnold had his followers, especially in
the region of Lombardy. The Catholics called those
who believed as Arnold did – “Lombards. ” J.T.
Christians says that by the year 1184 the Arnoldists
were termed Albigenses, a littler later they were
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classed as Waldenses. One German historian of the
Waldenses affirms, “There was connection between
the Waldenses and the followers of Peter of Bruys,
Henry of Lausanne and Arnold of Brescia, and they
finally united in one body about 1130 as they held
common views.” And please note that all these men
were about four hundred years before Luther and
Calvin.
I realize that I’ve gone over these names rather
quickly, but that was with a purpose. First, there
is little need for all the details, which you can find in
many other places if you are interested. And once
again, these are not Biblical names and titles, so
there is little reason for us to use them on ourselves.
I’d prefer that you not call me a “Bogomile” or
a “Petrobrussian.” But
it
is important
to
know that throughout
history
there
have
been Christians and churches which have rejected
the
sacraments and
other
heresies
of
the
predominant church. And one of the titles which has
been applied to those people of God has
been “Cathari.” They were people attempting to
live morally and doctrinally pure lives.
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