This page might appear to be a bit “heavy” on Roman Catholics but it is simply sharing the truth of history. I’m not an “anti-Catholic” rather to the contrary, as a former Catholic I still have many friends and family who consider themselves to be a part of that Church. There are a number of groups which were either wiped out or nearly wiped off the face of the earth for no other crime than to believe what was contrary to the Pope in Rome. A recent discussion on social media with current Catholic “apologists” revealed that they still feel completely ok with carrying out this tragedy and in fact, justify this bloodshed because it was carried out against what they labelled “heretics”. (their words not mine)
Have a read for yourself and feel free to contact me with any meaningful comments you might have. I’m open to civilized conversation.
Albigensians Background
The Albigensians formed in the 12th century in a very close region to the Waldensians in Southern France called Occitania. The Languedoc contained prosperous cities, rich farmland, and politically weak local rulers which made it the perfect region for control by Rome, however, the Albigensians (from Albi, France) despised the greed and corruption of the Catholic clergy like all of the pre-reformation groups during this time.
They also rejected many Catholic doctrines, including the sacraments (like Zwingli Swiss Reformers and Bible-believing Christians, they believed them to be symbols and not efficacious for salvation), purgatory (a completely fictitious doctrine of a ‘temporary hell’ for believers after they die – this was used to extort a fortune from Catholic church-goers then and now), and the Catholic Church and Pope’s authority (both of which were politically self-appointed by Leo I – the first one called “Pope”).
These beliefs along with lay preaching, access to the scriptures were nearly identical to the Waldensians of Peter Waldo, the Lollards of John Wycliffe and the Hussites of John Hus. The Albigensians themselves sent a letter expressing their genuine beliefs and adherence to the Christian creeds in order to dispel the lies and accusations being levied against them by the Roman Catholic church. This letter is can be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris – (National Library in Paris) as evidence of their orthodox beliefs.
Later, Oliver Cromwell, a national leader in England would declare their orthodoxy and even the world famous poet Milton described them as “evangelical”. It would appear that only the Dominican Inquisition of the Roman Catholics would provide the version that is found in Encyclopedias and secular History Books today and not the words of the Albigensians themselves.
As mentioned, the Albigensian movement was a multi-faceted movement with most groups orthodox in a similar way to the Waldensians of Lyons which puts them in the pre-reformers groups of denominations while some Cathar groups in Northern Italy may have embraced a form dualism.
Because of these doctrinal disagreements and the lucrative area of France, the Roman Catholics had lost influence in this part of Europe so Pope Innocent III sent a Crusade against this religious people in the same way the Catholic church would pursue the Lollards, Waldensians and Hussites.
This resulted in a horrific massacre of Albigensian Christians at Beziers, France. The Roman Catholics accused the Albigensians of multiple heresies like dualism (some Cathar groups in Northern Italy were indeed dualist) child-sacrifice abortion (completely fabricated by Catholic historical revisionists) and Manichean Gnosticism (again no evidence of this outside of Catholic sources)
Even if the Albigensians were guilty of all these contradictory heresies (You can’t hold to a Gnostic view of Christ AND believe He was a created man – yet they were accused of both), never are we as Christians directed by the Lord Jesus to take up arms against those that disagree with us. Jesus says in John 18:36, “My Kingdom is not of this world, otherwise my servants would fight…”
The Roman Catholic Church has NEVER agreed with this statement from Jesus and still to this day believe the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Christians were all justified simply because their land was wanted by Rome and to justify this murder, they simply had the Dominican Inquistors (or simply the Pope himself) declare them to be “heretics” to justify the slaughter. This isn’t Christian by any definition of the word.
Biblical Christians disagree with the Mormons and believe that their idea of God is heretical, we disagree with the Catholic perversion of the person of Mary in the Bible, turning her into the “Queen of Heaven” trusting in her for salvation instead of Jesus. But, we would NEVER condone violence against either group, rather we would seek to evangelize them with the genuine Gospel found in Scripture so they could be genuinely saved and KNOW they have eternal life.
Pope Innocent III
The Catholic Pope (a made up title/office not found in Scripture) at the time of the Albigensian massacre was Pope Innocent III. He represents the “high water mark” of the Catholic Papacy as he ruled over the apostate Catholic church AND European monarchs with an iron fist.
He despised the fact that he lost the money and power of southern France and sent a Crusade which resulted in the Beziers massacre of the Albigensians. He is also responsible for sending a Crusade against the Muslims occupying Jerusalem which ultimately resulted in Catholics sacking Eastern Orthodox Christians in Constantinople. This city had been given no reason not to trust the Catholic Crusader ships and so were betrayed by the apostate Catholic church.
Pope Innocent III considered the slaughter of 60,000 Albigensian men, women and children by Crusaders at Beziers to be the single greatest achievement of his reign as Pope. This is simply not Christian in any way, shape or form.
What Historians Say about the Albigensians
In his book “The War on Heresy”, historian R. I. Moore argues that the language, categorization, and fear of heresy were produced by the same intellectual and institutional forces that shaped persecution (papal reform, canon law, scholastic theology). I agree with Moore here in that many of the bloodbaths carried out by medieval Catholicism have been carried out by the same apostate church which has re-written the beliefs of those that they slaughtered.
He also argues that the inquisition records (famous for justifying Catholic slaughter of Bible-believing Christians) more reflect the inquisitors’ frameworks and assumptions as much as they reflect the beliefs of accused individuals: i.e., questions and categories imposed by interrogators influence what was produced as evidence.
As the great philosopher and theologian, Quinton Tarrantino writes in his script for the film Resevoir Dogs, “If you beat this person long enough he will tell you he started the Chicago fire but that don’t necessarily make it so!”. This is a crude but essentially correct summary of Moore’s position on any and all confessions secured by the Great Inquisition.
Historian Mark G. Pegg in his work Revisionism & Interpretation of Inquisition Evidence, he argues that the great inquisition of 1245–1246 — interrogations of over 5,000 individuals — shows that questions were often about social behaviors and contact with “good men/women” rather than clearly articulated doctrines; this ambiguity complicates straightforward readings of belief systems.
He goes on to say that inquisitorial categories influenced the data: the structure of questioning and expectations about heretical identities meant that the inquisitors shaped the testimonies they elicited which is similar to what Moore argues.
In his Cathars in Question chapter, Pegg goes further to claim that the traditional model of Catharism is a historians’ illusion — arguing that neither the Balkans thesis nor orthodox persecutors’ framing fully captures the phenomenon.
As we’ve mentaioned, the Albigensians are a number of groups which were all lumped together into a single monolithic group and slapped with nearly every heresy that Innocent III could muster in order to justify taking over control of a lucrative and productive area of Southern France which was removing itself from Catholic rule.
Fox's Book of the Martyrs
John Fox was a 17th century historian of the Christian church who catologued the events of those who died in the name of genuine Christianity. Sadly, he gives the account of the Roman Catholic persecution and murder of the Albigensians in his book:
"The Albigenses were a people of the reformed religion, who inhabited the country of Albi. They were condemned on the score of religion in the Council of Lateran, by order of Pope Alexander III. Nevertheless, they increased so prodigiously, that many cities were inhabited by persons only of their persuasion, and several eminent noblemen embraced their doctrines.
Among the latter were Raymond, earl of Toulouse, Raymond, earl of Foix, the earl of Beziers, etc. A friar, named Peter, having been murdered in the dominions of the earl of Toulouse, the pope made the murder a pretense to persecute that nobleman and his subjects. To effect this, he sent persons throughout all Europe, in order to raise forces to act coercively against the Albigenses, and promised paradise to all that would come to this war, which he termed a Holy War, and bear arms for forty days. The same indulgences were likewise held out to all who entered themselves for the purpose as to such as engaged in crusades to the Holy Land.
The brave earl defended Toulouse and other places with the most heroic bravery and various success against the pope's legates and Simon, earl of Montfort, a bigoted Catholic nobleman. Unable to subdue the earl of Toulouse openly, the king of France, and the queen mother, and three archbishops raised another formidable army, and had the art to persuade the earl of Toulouse to come to a conference, when he was treacherously seized upon, made a prisoner, forced to appear barefooted and bareheaded before his enemies, and compelled to subscribe an abject recantation.
This was followed by a severe persecution against the Albigenses; and express orders that the laity should not be permitted to read the sacred Scriptures. In the year 1620 also, the persecution against the Albigenses was very severe. In 1648 a heavy persecution raged throughout Lithuania and Poland. The cruelty of the Cossacks was so excessive that the Tartars themselves were ashamed of their barbarities. Among others who suffered was the Rev. Adrian Chalinski, who was roasted alive by a slow fire, and whose sufferings and mode of death may depict the horrors which the professors of Christianity have endured from the enemies of the Redeemer.
No one receives eternal life and eternal presence with God (from Whom all good things come – James 1:17), by belonging to the right church, denomination, world religion, or by having a particular world view. Rather only those who trust in the Lord Jesus (preached by the Apostles in the Bible) for their own sin.
We will not trust in a Savior for sins that we either don’t believe we have or that we think aren’t deserving of hell. But the Bible says that ALL have sin and the wages of that sin is eternal separation from God (death). The good news is that the Bible says that you can know that YOU have eternal life. Click the button below to see if you are genuinely saved from your sins according to the Bible: