Chapter
3
The
Heretics
Men and the world are mutually
toxic to each other. –Philip K. Dick
Codes
play a previously unsuspected role in equations that possess the property of
supersymmetry. This unsuspected connection suggests that these codes may be
ubiquitous in nature, and could even be embedded in the essence of reality. If
this is the case, we might have something in common with the Matrix
science-fiction films, which depict a world where everything human beings
experience is the product of a virtual-reality-generating computer network. – James Gates
“Kill them all and let God sort them out.”
These words were attributed to Arnold
Amaury, the monk placed in charge of the First Albigensian Crusade, at the sack
of Beziers in 1209. The well fortified
walls had offered no protection against a foolish decision of the defenders,
both Catholic and Cathar. On the very
first day that the vast army of the Papal forces laid siege to Beziers, as the
occupying troops were pitching their tents preparing for a long drawn out
stalemate, potentially taking months to break the will of the defenders, a lone
peasant ribald stood on outside the moat and called insults up to city. Ribalds were wandering, obnoxious, foot
soldiers who joined armies for the fighting and a small share of the spoils
unwanted by the knights. This fellow was
evidently a master of the pejorative. At
first, the Occitan defenders of Beziers gave as good as they got, shouting
curses in Monty Python style down on the unwashed crusader.
No doubt the lone heckler said things like,
“You fucking heretics are so fucking doomed!
You kissers of cat ass!” In fact,
the very term Cathar is probably a play on words between the Greek word meaning
“The Pure” and the ancient German phrase meaning “cat ass kissers” in reference
to their critics’ claims of their obscene rites. Whatever, the man said, it was too much to
bear for the stout defenders of the Languedoc stronghold. They ordered the gates opened and the draw
bridge dropped, much to the chagrin of our ribald. One can imagine his face turning deadly pale,
his eyes staring wide.
Out from the gate rushed a small troop of
armed Occitan knights. Occitan being a
term used to describe the people and language of Languedoc, which means the
place where people say “oc” instead of “oui”.
Needless to say, the lone ribald was ripped to shreds, but not before
many of his fellow ribalds had run to his assistance. A melee on the drawbridge ensued. The ribald forces held up surprisingly well,
armed with their clubs and knives against the swords and maces of the knights
of Beziers. By the time the lords of the
city realized that their gates were up and rushed to defend their town, the
small contingent of Occitan knights that had sought to punish the lone heckler
were severely outnumbered and scores of ribald troops were pouring into the
city, beating and stabbing anyone they encountered.
Even more surprised than their Occitan
counterparts, the knights of the north were the last to notice that the battle
for the city had already begun. The
cries of: “To arms, to arms! The City
has been breached!” finally reached their ears as they set up camp. At last
they grabbed their weapons and rode out into the city to wage their holy war
against the heretics and those who would defend them. And Beziers fell.
It was then the Arnold Amaury, when asked
how they would figure out which of the city’s citizens were heretics and which
were faithful Catholics, coined the infamous phrase.
“Kill them all and let God sort them out.”
Fires were lit, and soon the great fortress of
Beziers, stronghold of the House of Trencavel was a giant funeral pyre. Those who were not slaughtered by knight and
ribald in the initial attack were consumed in flames. Between 15,000 and 20,000 people, Cathar,
Catholic, and Jew died in the first holocaust of the Crusade against the
heretics of Languedoc.
But who were these Cathars? And why did the Pope want them destroyed?
The Cathars, and it must be noted that they
did not refer to themselves by this term of insult, but simply called
themselves the Good People or Good Christians, were a Gnostic Christian sect
that arouse to notice and power at the turn of the first millennium. They claimed that their faith was the true
Christian faith and that their sect was founded by Mary Magdalene who had fled
the Holy Land to France and had settled in Languedoc, the region of
southwestern France today known as Languedoc-Roussillen. There it is said that Mary shared the true
teachings of Christ with her followers.
The Good People believed that there were
two Gods, the Good God who created Heaven and the angels, and the Evil God who
created the World. The Evil God, the
Gnostic’s Demiurge, then tricked the angels from heaven and caught them in the
web of the flesh, forcing them to reincarnate again and again, feeding off
their fear and evil deeds. There was
only one way out of this mess they preached, and that was to follow the example
of Jesus, by turning away from the irrelevancy of worldliness, by abstaining
from sex, by taking no oaths, eating no meat, by embracing poverty and
self-sacrifice, and by spreading the good news that this prison of flesh could,
in fact, be transcended, and the pure could again dwell with God in his Heaven.
The Cathars, of course, realized that such
a life was not for everyone, and not everyone was spiritually pure enough to
make that leap of faith and reach the White Brilliance of the Good God, the
Heavenly Father. Therefore there were
two classes of Cathar, the credentes who held the beliefs but were not ready to
live the life of purity required, and the Perfect who lived in poverty, purity,
and spiritual grace. For the Perfect
this was their last incarnation before reunion of God. The credentes held the Perfect in awe and
aspired to one day, in some incarnation or other, join them in purity and
grace. However, unlike the Perfect the
credentes could live how they liked, eat what they would, and basically do
whatever they wanted as this world was completely irrelevant to their spiritual
fate. Earth was hell, and finding
whatever refuge from the nightmare of life was completely acceptable.
Other Cathar beliefs included sexual
equality, as one could be a knight in one life and a milk maid in another, so
women could be Perfects as well (after all their church was founded by a
woman). Social equality: one’s religion
did not prevent one from holding public office.
Though the Catholic Church didn’t love these aspects of the sect, it was
the Cathar stance on the Church itself that defined their heresy. The Good Christians held that the Church had
lost its way, and become an engine of evil, leading people away from the message
of Christ, holding them in the endless cycle of rebirth and death, pawns of the
archonic Evil God.
At first, the Church attempted to out preach
the Cathars of Languedoc whose teachings were spreading like wildfire across
Europe. However, the hypocrisy of the
rich monks, priests, and legates of Rome was evident to any that could
see. Their fine clothing, the gold they
demanded for Rome and their own pockets, their luxurious lifestyles by Medieval
standards stood in stark contrast with the simply piety of the Perfect. Further, the Perfect and their credentes held
that Rome had no right to tithes or indulgences, which they considered simple
extortion, and had encouraged the lords of Languedoc to ignore such demands of
the Catholics.
In the 12th century, however, the Catholic
Church was in no position to do anything about the Cathar heresy fomenting in
Languedoc, as it had its own problems in Rome.
Rival papancies battled throughout Italy for supremacy. This was the age of the antipopes, whose constant
warfare against each other required all of their attention. And so it was until a strong pope emerged
from the fray. Pope Innocent III was the
most powerful pope in five hundred years.
He quickly consolidated the faithful of Catholicism and then turned his
attention to the Occitan heretics. It
was Innocent that launched the horrific and bloody crusade against the
Cathars. The slaughter at Beziers was
just the beginning. In just over a
hundred years, there were no more Cathars left in Europe, the lords of
Languedoc who defended them were stripped of their lands, their houses broken,
castles destroyed, and handed over to the French king by papal authority.
Copyright 2017 Diana Hignutt
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