Who Were They?
The Albigenses
Matthew 10:16-28
16Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of
wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and
harmless as doves. 17But beware of men: for they
will deliver you up to the councils, and they will
scourge you in their synagogues; 18And ye shall be
brought before governors and kings for my sake,
for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
19But when they deliver you up, take no thought
how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you
in that same hour what ye shall speak. 20For it is
not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father
which speaketh in you. 21And the brother shall
deliver up the brother to death, and the father the
child: and the children shall rise up against their
parents, and cause them to be put to death. 22And
ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but
he that endureth to the end shall be saved. 23But
when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into
another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have
gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be
come. 24The disciple is not above his master, nor
the servant above his lord. 25It is enough for the
disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as
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his lord. If they have called the master of the house
Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of
his household? 26Fear them not therefore: for
there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed;
and hid, that shall not be known. 27What I tell you
in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear
in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.
28And fear not them which kill the body, but are
not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which
is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
[JFR]
We continue to look at some of the groups that were
in existence during the Dark Ages and during the
Reformation. Again, we refer to Pastor K. David
Oldfield’s work on the subject.
[Oldfield]
For
those
who
are acquainted
with
history – not the edited history of some people who abhor the truth – but the actual Medieval history of
Europe,
the
name “Albigenses” shines
like
a lighthouse into the Dark Ages. And it should
also resonate like a trumpet to all of its children
today – “You too can bring glory to Christ in the
midst of a dark and Satan-controlled world.”
There is a little town in Languedoc, of Southern
France, called Albi, but it formerly was known
as Albiga. In some ways it might be compared to
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Coeur d’Alene. Today it is just about the same in
size and population. And it is nestled against the
Midi-Pyrenees Mountains – not the Alps which are
further east, but a smaller and lower range of
mountains. It grew up on the edge of River Tarn, just
as Coeur d’Alene lays on the edge of the lake. But
here is where the similarities end. For a long time,
Albiga became the focal point for the defense of the
Truth and a shelter for the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. A small community, far away from the great
centers of the world – Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem
– was a beacon to the rest of the world.
God particularly blessed Albiga.
Mosheim declares that from the beginning of the
11th century
to
the
middle
of
the
13th Paulicians began migrating from the Balkan
Peninsula to this place in France. Apparently,
the local governor gave to them his protection. As
we saw [previously], the “Paulicians” arose in
eastern Turkey about the middle of the 6th century,
struggling to remain alive in the midst of persecution
from both Eastern Catholicism and Roman
Catholicism. But God gave them a benefactor who
permitted and encouraged their migration to
Thrace – Macedonia. In Eastern Europe, they spread
to Romania and along the Adriatic Sea across from
Italy where Albania is today. They also migrated up
the Danube River into Central Europe and then
down
into
Southern
France.
They
were
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called “Paulicians” from
their deliberate
attempts to
follow
the writings of
the Apostle
Paul. It
might
be
said
that we
could
be
called “Paulicians” for the same reason. But at the
time there was one significant difference between
their situation and ours. In contrast to our
ecumenical, all-embracing liberalism, for those
people to follow Paul meant overt rebellion against
the Catholics who created their own doctrines and
religion, saying it was based on Peter.
Another term applied to those people as they began
to settle into the Albiga valley was “Cathari.”
Historians may divide and separate those names,
but
that
is
only
for convenience’s
sake. The Donatists and Montanists were
essentially the same in doctrine, but they
were different in geography and local history. They
were both, along with yet others, who were
called “Cathari” from
the
4th and
5th century
onward. Similarly,
God’s
people have
been charged with
being “Anabaptists” ten
centuries before it was applied by the Protestants to
a specific group. The Encyclopedia Britannica says
of the Albigenses – Their “descent may be tranced
with tolerable distinctness from the Paulicians.”
What did they believe?
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As we have said before, the Catholics had
been accusing them
of Manichaeism
for
centuries. One of the reasons of this was due to their
attempts
to live
pure
lives –
they
were “Cathari.” The Manichaeists followed
a pagan philosophy where the world was divided
into good and evil – darkness and light – between
which
there
was
a constant
battle. True Manichaeism denied what the Bible
revealed about creation and
the fall
of
man. It denied the sovereignty and authority of
Jehovah over creation. Those people denied the deity
of Christ and the necessity or possibility of the new
birth. They were heretics of the highest caliber. But
for the most part they tried to live above what they
considered
to
be “evil.” They
were moral
without having a Biblical basis for their morality.
Now, let’s stop and think about this for a moment –
But don’t WE also believe in the realities of
both good and evil? Don’t we believe that there is
a holy God who is opposed by an evil Devil? Don’t
we struggle to live clean, moral lives in the midst of
society’s
filth? When society’s
predominant religion cares little for purity, and
her priests are among the most immoral people in
society, he who tries to live a holy life according to
the teachings of Christ and Paul, will be called a
lunatic – a purist – a Manichaeist. One of
the reasons for
the
growth
and
popularity
of Albigensian people was the fact that “their
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preachers corresponded with their words.” The
Protestant Shaff-Herzog Encyclopedia says, “The
Roman Catholic church, so far as it still could be
said to exist in (that part of) the country, had become
an object of contempt and derision.” because of the
decadence and sin of her priests.
The
Catholics
charged the
Albigenses
with rejecting marriage. If you heard that I rejected
marriage, you might assume I believe in “free
love” and open immorality. But in the case of these
Paulicians and Cathari, the charge must be
interpreted according to the people making the
charge. The Catholics believed that only their
church had the authority to solemnize marriage – to
them it was a sacrament - a means of
grace. Anyone who covenanted to live together as a
married
couple without
official
church
approval was considered to be unmarried. It was said
that the Albigenses rejected marriage – but the
charge was false. They believed in the purity and
permanency of marriage more strongly than the
Catholics, but they didn’t go to the Catholics for their
license to marry. This is not my opinion, because it
comes right out of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
They were also accused of denying baptism with
the same corrupt logic. Remember that the enemy
was flooding the world with his lies about these
people, and the reality and truth were rarely
surviving – but truth is a very hard thing to kill. The
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Albigenses
were observing
the
ordinances
according to the Bible, while their enemies were not.
To the Catholic a denial of infant baptism was
a denial of baptism. Robinson quotes another
saying, “The Abigenses do esteem the baptizing of
infants as superstitious.” Armitage avows that
they did not believe in baptismal regeneration –
they practiced believer’s baptism. And running
parallel with that, the Lord’s supper was a
commemoration of the death of Christ – it was not a
means to salvation.
Another charge against these people, which
again sounds evil, was in fact a good thing. They
refused “the oath.” In our society, an oath is
intended to secure veracity – “the truth, the whole
truth, nothing but the truth.” But in the Middle Ages,
it was a device designed to secure loyalty -
faithfulness
to
the
homogenous
religious
government. Before
Constantine,
an
oath
of allegiance to the Emperor, as god, was demanded
of all citizens. During the days of Decius, for
example, men were required to sign an official
affidavit attesting to their loyalty to the imperial
religion.
And after
Constantine that
practice
continued,
but
then
in
involved the
new
religion. Those who refused to sign were ostracized,
punished, and executed. But of course, God’s people
refused to make that oath, and they suffered the
consequences. (By the way, that kind of oath was
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required in many of the colonies of North America
for a while.)
(Do you think that our ancient forefathers would
have said, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America, and to the republic for
which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all”? Might not those old
saints would say that our allegiance belongs only to
Christ. “Render unto Caesar the things that are
Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” Our
hearts should belong to the Lord alone.)
As the
Inquisition
began,
one
of
the
Catholic’s simplest
tools was the
oath. At
the Council of Toulouse in 1229, very near the town
of Albiga, it was decreed – “In order that… heretics
may be the more readily exterminated and the Roman
faith the more speedily planted in this land, we
decree, that you shall …. make all males above
fourteen and all females above twelve to abjure all
heresy and besides promise with an oath that they
will defend the Catholic Church and persecute the
heretics. All those who after such abjurations shall
be found to have apostatized… shall be punished as
apostates deserve.” Verduin says, “It is no wonder
that the ‘heretics’ deprecated the oath as an
institution.”
In church government, the Albigenses were
Baptists. “Their bards or pastors were every one of
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them heads of their churches, but they acted on
nothing without the consent of the people…” “Their
ritual
and
ecclesiastical
organization
were
exceedingly simple.” In fact, their worship and
church government were so simple that the Romish
churches couldn’t see any church at all.
Jones says in his chapter on the Albigenses – “They
said a Christian church should consist of good
people; a church had no power to frame any
constitutions; it was not right to take oaths; it was
not lawful to kill mankind; a man ought not to be
delivered up to the officers of justice to be converted;
the benefits of society belong alike to all members of
it; faith without works could not save a man; the
church ought not to persecute any, even the wicked;
the law of Moses was no rule for Christians; there
was no need of priests, especially of wicked ones; the
sacraments, and orders, and ceremonies of the
church of Rome were futile, expensive, oppressive,
and wicked. They baptized by immersion and
rejected infant baptism.”
What is the Albigensian legacy?
Whatever it is, it is written in blood. J.T. Christian
says, “In the year 1130 they were condemned by the
Lateran Council; by that of Tours in 1163, and
mission after mission was sent among them to
persuade them to return to the Roman Catholic
Church. Cardinal Henry, in 1180, employed force.
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Pope Innocent III published a crusade against them.
Says the Historian Hume: The people from all parts
of Europe moved by their superstition and their
passion for wars and adventures, flocked to his
standard. Simon de Monfort, the general of the
crusade, acquired to himself a sovereignty of these
provinces. The Count of Toulouse, who protected, or
perhaps only tolerated the Albigenses, was stript of
his dominions. And these sectaries themselves,
though the most inoffensive and innocent of mankind,
were exterminated with the circumstances of extreme
violence and barbarity.”
In the second crusade, the first city captured
was Braziers, which had some forty thousand
inhabitants. When Simon de Monfort, Earl of
Leicester, asked the Abbot of Ceteaux, the papal
legate, what he was to do with the inhabitants, the
legate answered: “Kill them all. God knows His
own.” It is said that 60,000 died in those first few
months, but the slaughter went on for twenty years.
Town after town was taken, pillaged, burnt. Nothing
was left but a smoking waste. Religious fanaticism
began the war; rapacity and ambition ended it. Peace
was concluded in 1229, but then the Inquisition
finished the deadly work.
And yet the work was never really finished, because
the Papal wrath could not douse the flames of
truth. The Albigenses continued to serve the Lord as
well as they could while hiding. Many fled to the
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mountains and lived among the Waldensians. The
Paulicians and Cathari of France were not officially
called Albigenses until they were condemned
by Roman council in 1254. But, as we have seen,
they existed long before then – and they continued
after then. In fact they grew up and prospered while
at the same time the Waldenses were living in the
Alps between France and Italy only a few hundred
miles away. Over time they met together, mutually
strengthening one another.
“We live,” says Everwin of Steinfield, “a hard and
wandering life. We flee from city to city like in the
midst of wolves. We suffer persecution like the
apostles and martyrs because our life is holy and
austere. It is passed amidst prayer, abstinence, and
labours, but everything is easy for us because we are
not this world.” Lea, an expert on the Inquisition, has
said “no religion can show a more unbroken roll of
victims who unshrinkingly sought death in its most
abhorrent form in preference to apostasy than the
Cathari.”
But then there is the observation of Lord Macaulay.
According
to
Wikipedia Thomas
Babington
Macaulay was a British historian and politician. His
books on British history have been hailed as literary
masterpieces. Jarrel says that the Albigensian
congregations established local schools and
charitable institutions, whereas the state church did
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nothing but devour the resources of every region they
possessed.
Judging from the facts of history, I think that it would
be an honor to be called an “Albigenses.”
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