The Cathar castles ruins stand at the top of their rocky peaks and there remains much of their former lives Cathar (if indeed there ever was ...). It is a little difficult to get a clear idea of what those Cathar castles at the time, or even what they served. A flashback is required.


But who are the Cathars?


The Cathars were a Christian religious movement in medieval times, which was considered by the Papacy as a heresy. The Cathars appeared in Limousin in the late eleventh century and then spread in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the south of France, especially in Languedoc, especially in cities such as Albi, Foix, Beziers, Carcassonne and Toulouse , which at that time do not belong to the crown of France. But why he draws crowds as much?


The Cathars takes its name from the Greek katharos, which means "pure." It is developing at a time when the Church of Rome was an institution of power to the ostentatious wealth, which sometimes use force to impose its ideology (as in the Crusades). It is easier to understand why the implementation of the Pure is done without much difficulty. The Cathars are based on the Gospels, especially the Gospel of St. John, but reject the Old Testament, the deity of Christ, the sacraments.


They see the world as an opposition between good and evil, between the good god (God the Father, which Christ speaks in the Gospels) and the evil god (played by Lucifer), therefore the Cathar doctrine is dualistic .


The good God created the soul, heaven, the spirits: the invisible world is perfect and eternal. Conversely, the evil god reigns over the visible world, that is to say, the Earth, matter, body and this world is temporal and corruptible. Thus the human world is not God.


And men are fallen angels, imprisoned in a body source of all desires and suffering, symbol of evil, which they expect to be issued.


So for the Cathars, hell on Earth.


The Cathar church has its own organization. It is headed by four bishops, those of Albi (hence the name of Albigenses), Toulouse, Carcassonne and Agen. The Perfect, men or women, are responsible for teaching the Cathar doctrine among believers, the faithful.


The Perfects are austere existence in order to get rid of corruptible world and achieve the perfect world: they live a life of abstinence, never eat meat, milk, dairy, eggs, (for fruit of a procreative act), are humble, poor and charitable and n'otent life forever. They live in two at least, to enable mutual surveillance in the application of rules of abstinence. They showed great kindness to human weaknesses and wrongdoing, they do not judge but are there to listen to and appease the faithful.


We understand why, between a priest who condemns these movements time and listens and sympathizes Perfect, the population is more receptive to messages of Perfect! In addition, Perfect used vulgar language in their sermons as if to read the Gospel, the Occitan language (hence also the name of Languedoc ...).


The only sacrament which exists or is consolamentum consolament, which is administered by a Perfect by imposition of hands, either for the ordination of a Perfect or a blessing for the believer to the point of death. The Comforter "washing of all sin and filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit."

The region's tourism portal and Cucugnan Duilhac-sub-Corbieres features an interview with a historian who focuses the Cathars: to listen carefully!