Reply #63: I get your point,, but your history is wrong

[RoseMead]

The First Crusade was begun in 1095 by Pope Urban II, It was directed at recapturing Jerusalem, and was the only crusade that actually achieved that goal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Crusade

The Albigensian Crusade was launched by Pope Innocent III in 1209. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albigensian_Crusade

The Albigensian Crusade was dircted against the Cathars, who practiced a form of dualistic, Gnostic Christianity. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathars) To call them goddess worshippers is incorret. Rather, they were Christian heretics, whose beliefs were similar in some ways to those of the Bogomils and the Paulicians. They believed that the material world was evil and had been created by an evil, lesser god, while all that was truely good and holy existed outside of the material world. Therefore, they argued, Jesus could not have been the son of the good God and also have incarnated materially, which amounted to a challenge against he concept of Jesus as "true God and true man." The Church persecuted them because of these beliefs, and the king of France ultimately joined in because it allowed him to crush the nobility of the Languedoc region. The Languedoc (southern France) had a different language and culture than that of Northern France and the nobles there were very powerful. When the pope issued a decree that all Cathar lands could be rightfully confiscated, the king and the northern nobility saw it as holy permission for a brutal land grab and a chance to bring the Languedoc nobility under tighter control.

I also don't know that it's fair to say that Catharism was closer to "original" Christianity than the official Church teachings of the time, because I've never seen any evidence that original Christianity was dualist. But it is fair to say that Catharism was gnostic, and Gnosticism is a very old variant of Christianity.


Catharism and the Albigensian Crusade are special interests of mine. :)