The
Other God: Dualist Religions from Antiqutiy to the Cathar Heresy
Yuri Stoyanov
A
more academic work covering a larger area of history than just the Cathars.
These
are the chapters
1.
The Bridge of the Separator.
2.The
Time of Mixture.
3.The
thread of the Great Heresy.
4.
The Dualist Communion.
5.
The Crusade against Dualism.
6.Legends,parables
and secret myths.
The
book is very academic.There is a lot of fairly heavy reading and, being
unused to some of the terminology i left large tracts unread.
But
what was worth reading?
1.
The Massalian heresy.To quote, The Massalians or praying
people, also known as Enthusiasts were an anticlerical,pietist sect.Their
main belief was founded on a strange type of anthropological dualism.They
believed that from birth every man has a demon dwelling inside him.This
demon cannot be banished by baptism but through continuous, ascetic and
unceasing prayer.The Massalian mystic was supposed to reach a passionless
state and then the demon could be expelled.The Holy Ghots would then take
the place of the demon.The Massalians appear to have emerged in north
east Mesopotamia and by the end of the 4th century they had entered Syria
and Asia Minor.Not a lot is known about there fate , but it is thought
they were merged with other similar believers in the Balkans.
2.Alexius
and Anna Commenus. Their capture and eventual burning of the
monk Basil.How they lived with Bogomilism and the teaching of Mani.
3.
The Cathars. Surprisingly little of this large book is devoted
to Cathars. A disappointment? Maybe, but it shows that the Cathars were
a relatively small part of the dualist movement.One interesting point
is the suggestion that the Perfecti from Montsegur were actually burnt
at Bram.After the fall of Montsegur the Western centre of dualism moved
to Lombardy.In the final chapter, on myths, we read that the Languedoc
Cathars believed that Mary Magdelene was actually married to Christ.This
is not part of normal Bogomil teachings.
Cathar
facts:-
Simon
de Montfort died on June 24th 1218 whilst laying seige to Toulouse.
A
huge seige engine or "cat" had been constructed at enourmous
expense. Roger Bernard of Foix organised a counter attack to try and destroy
the "cat". When the attackers tried to defend the machine Guy,
Simon's brother was hit in the groin by a quarrel from a cross bow. Shortly
after this a rock from a mangonel hit Simon de Montfort in the face killing
him instantly.
Quoted
from Perfect Heresy, pages 165 to 168.
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