The Cathar Heresy, St. Dominic de Guzmán & the Albigensian Crusade
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ It was written of St. Dominic de Guzmán, in Rev. Alban Butler’s “Lives of the Saints”, that “his heart was well-nigh broken by the ravages of the Albigensian heresy, and his life was henceforth devoted to the conversion of heretics and the defence of the faith.” Gnosticism as a mystical Christian movement again challenged the hegemony of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. This time, a branch of the Cathar movement known as Albigensianism. It had a dualist worldview and an inherent dislike for the Church due to corruption within the ranks of the clergy. Albigensianism attracted an incredibly large following, divided into the “perfect” and “believers”. Albigensianism, the form of Catharism found in Southern Europe, is named after Albi, the Latin name being Albiga. This town is the present capital of the Department of Tarn in France. It was a neo-Manichæan sect. The name “Albigen...