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(ălbĭjĕn`sēz) [Lat.,=people of Albi, one of their centers], religious sect of S France in the Middle Ages.

Beliefs and Practices

Officially known as heretics, they were actually CathariCathari
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, Provençal adherents of a doctrine similar to the Manichaean dualistic system of material evil and spiritual good (see ManichaeismManichaeism
or Manichaeanism

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; BogomilsBogomils
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). They held the coexistence of these two principles, represented by God and the Evil One, light and dark, the soul and the body, the next life and this life, peace and war, and the like. They believed that Jesus only seemed to have a human body.

The Albigenses were extremely ascetic, abstaining from flesh in all its forms, including milk and cheese. They comprised two classes, believers and Perfect, the former much more numerous, making up a catechumenate not bound by the stricter rules observed by the Perfect. The Perfect were those who had received the sacrament of consolamentum, a kind of laying on of hands. The Albigenses held their clergy in high regard. An occasional practice was suicide, preferably by starvation; for if this life is essentially evil, its end is to be hastened.

They had enthusiasm for proselytizing and preached vigorously. This fact partly accounted for their success, for at that time preaching was unknown in ordinary parish life. In the practice of asceticism as well, the contrast between local clergy and the Albigenses was helpful to the new sect.


Early Years

Albigensianism appeared in the 12th cent. and soon had powerful protectors. Local bishops were ineffectual in dealing with the problem, and the pope sent St. Bernard of Clairvaux and other Cistercians to preach in Languedoc, the center of the movement. In 1167 the Albigenses held a council of their own at Toulouse. Pope Innocent III attacked the problem anew, and his action in sending (1205) St. Dominic to lead a band of poor preaching friars into the Albigensian cities was decisive. These missionaries were hampered by the war that soon broke out.

The Albigensian Crusade

In 1208 the papal legate, a Cistercian, Peter de Castelnau, was murdered, probably by an aid of Raymond VIRaymond VI,
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 of Toulouse, one of the chief Albigensian nobles. The pope proclaimed (1208) the Albigensian Crusade. From the first, political interests in the war overshadowed others; behind Simon de MontfortMontfort, Simon de
, c.1160–1218, count of Montfort and earl of Leicester. A participant in the Fourth Crusade (1202–4), he did not join in the sack of Constantinople, but instead proceeded to Syria. He later led the crusade against the Albigenses.
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, the Catholic leader, was France, and behind Raymond was Peter II of Aragón, irreproachably Catholic. Innocent attempted to make peace, but the prize of S France was tempting, and the crusaders continued to ransack the entire region.

In 1213 at Muret, Montfort was victor and Peter was killed. The war went on, with the son of Philip II (later Louis VIII) as one of the leaders. Simon's death in 1218 robbed him of victory and left his less competent son to continue the fight. Raymond's son, Raymond VII, joined the war, which was finally terminated with an honorable capitulation by Raymond. By the Peace of Paris (1229), Louis IX acquired the county of Toulouse. The religious result of the crusade was negligible.

In 1233, Pope Gregory IX established a system of legal investigation in Albigensian centers and put it into the hands of the Dominicans; this was the birth of the medieval InquisitionInquisition

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. After 100 years of the Inquisition, of tireless preaching by the friars, and of careful reform of the clergy, Albigensianism was dead.


See S. Runciman, The Medieval Manichee (1947, repr. 1961); R. Rose, Albigen Papers (3d ed. 1979); S. O'Shea, The Perfect Heresy (2000).




members of a broad heretical movement in southern France during the 12th and 13th centuries, adherents of the teachings of the Cathari and Waldenses. The origin of the name Albigenses is uncertain. It is usually associated with the city of Albi (in Latin, Albiga), which was perhaps the first center of the movement. Some modern historians derive the name from a distortion of the name of the Albanians—Albanenses—because the Cathari teaching had spread from the Balkan peninsula. The Albigenses considered the earthly world, including the Catholic Church, to be the creation of satan. They rejected the basic dogmas of the church and demanded the liquidation of church lands and tithes. Most of the Albigenses were townspeople, chiefly artisans, although some were peasants. Some local feudal lords, especially the lesser ones, who had claims on church wealth, joined the movement. The count of Toulouse gave the Albigenses his open protection. The pope initiated a crusade against them, and they were condemned by the 12th Ecumenical (Fourth Lateran) Council (1215). The Inquisition was established in the large cities of the south, and the bloody eradication of the Albigenses began, accompanied by widespread confiscation of their property for the benefit of the Catholic Church and royal power. The heresy of Albigensianism disappeared in the 14th century. [1—1384—1]







medieval sect suppressed by a crusade, wars, and the Inquisition. [Fr. Hist.: NCE, 53]
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